Pax Drone: Difference between revisions
→Abolition and Legacy
(4 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
Line 23:
The Pax Drone policy remained in effect from 1983 to 2022. At its height, it is estimated that some 10 million Packilvanian citizens were designated as Drones. These were almost exclusively drawn from the lowest classes.
The Drone policy was widely criticized by sapient rights activists as a form of state-sponsored slavery. Drones were typically assigned to penal colonies that would then either utilize them on government projects, or else lease their labor out to private industries. Pax Drones had no control over who they worked for or what work they were required to do during their period of imprisonment, which was capped at 21 years. Drones had their movements and actions controlled and dictated in a manner similar to regular prisoners, and were frequently imprisoned alongside hardened convicts and subjected to levels of violence that were commonplace across the Packilvanian prison system. In some instances, Drones were sent to work on projects in foreign nations.
The Pax Drone policy was subject to controversy and scrutiny since its inception, and these only mounted as the number of citizens subjected to the policy expanded. Ironically, it was periods of economic turbulence that brought forward successive challenges to the policy. Depressions frequently created scenarios where even the less-impoverished and marginalized classes in Packilvania might struggle with their outstanding debts and thus face the grim prospects of being subjected to forced labor. This inevitably created pushback and outcries that could not be easily ignored, and as a result the Drone policy was steadily attrited and limited almost from its moment of inception. The implementation of modern bankruptcy laws in the 2000s almost entirely defanged the Drone policy, even as it lived on in theory.
The Drone policy was formally ended in 2022 as a part of wider government reforms that have been attributed to the rise of a new generation of Packilvanian leaders, such as the then-[[Crown Prince of Packilvania|Crown Prince]] [[Thumim V]].
▲=== Abolishment and Legacy ===
Despite its abolishment, the Drone policy continues to have lingering effects both in Packilvania and around the world. Nations such as the [[Free Pacific States]] continue to host large numbers of former Pax Drones who had fled as asylum seekers and refugees. Additionally, forced labor remains a fact of life in Packilvanian prisons, although these facilities now enjoy far less autonomy and cannot freely lease out their prisoners, and financial profit is no longer the primary stated goal. Further, individuals can still be imprisoned for failing to pay certain government and court fines, which have a disproportionate impact on marginalized groups.
|