IDAHO FALLS, Idaho - Republican delegates voted to back a resolution for Idaho inmates to pay for their own room and board through hard labor.
If the recommendation -- it's only that -- were followed, prisoners would have to grow their own food.
Lucas Baumbach, a Boise Tea Party activist and delegate from Ada County, told those attending the 2010 state convention on Saturday that his measure's premise was simple.
Baumbach told delegates, "I think prisoners should have to work for their food."
State Sen. Bart Davis, an Idaho Falls Republican, argued it wasn't that simple, saying the resolution would impede existing and proven work by the state Department of Correction to treat and remedy drug and alcohol addictions.
Davis called that the best way to rehabilitate inmates and return them to productive life beyond the prison yard.
