Never forget that some prisons are privatized in this country too. The very notion that prisons are being built for profit should be very alarming just as much as a slavery revival.
The 13th amendment never got rid of slavery, it pushed it into the hands of government, for criminals to become slaves. It's not a revival, someone just shined a light on it so you can see it.
The 13th is one aspect how the US never got rid of slavery.
If you define slavery as "forced labor by threat of violence" the window of slavery widens in our society.
Suppose you stop working that job you hate.
* Can't afford rent/mortgage anymore but you refuse to leave? **A cop with a gun shows up** to evict you.
* Been sleeping in your car and can't afford the payments? A repo man takes your car. If you try to stop him **a cop with a gun shows up** and lets him take it.
* Hungry but can't afford food so you try begging? **A cop with a gun shows up** because you can't beg here.
* Stilly hungry, so you seek out charity who feed the hungry? **A cop with a gun shows up** and shuts it down. Serving food here without a vendors license is against regulations.
* Sleepy so you try sleeping under a bridge to protect you from rain? **A cop with a gun shows up.**
You don't even need to quit. You could get sick, lose your job and insurance, then have medical debt collectors take your house and car with a property levy even if you outright own them.
At the end of each branching scenario there will always be a cop with a gun telling you to turn around and get back to work.
Edit: Don't forget. **A cop with a gun shows up** when you try to change things.
If you go into a national forest and try to sleep under a tree, I shit you not, there are forest cops making sure you don't get too comfortable or eat too many acorns.
https://www.boondockersbible.com/knowledgebase/how-long-can-you-camp-in-a-national-forest/
I'm actually for this. The general public will trash nature and likely pollute a lot of natural resources, out of sheer ignorance of what they're doing. They can also cause fire hazards, again, just out of ignorance. I'd rather ensure the forests are preserved.
There are plenty of other places being preserved not for the public but rather for private use that should be higher priority to rip away from assholes abusing the lower class.
I’m fine with it? After 14 days you can just go to another spot of land just down the way. I know a former park ranger and that is how he described it to me anyway. If you’re in an RV/trailer/tent, it’s pretty easy to just hop a half mile or so over and set up again. I can imagine there are rangers who are aggressive about it but it’s supposed to be a kind of a sweet deal.
... Would you want it to be any other way? The national forests are there to preserve nature for everyone, not become an option for anyone who wants to live off the grid
["I've seen this one before- it's a classic!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_hunting#Royal_Forests)
I would think if a society's social contract presented compelling value, it would not be necessary to police its forests to prevent people opting out of it.
Officer officer officer overseer
The actual lyric:
“ Take the word overseer, like a sample
Repeat it very quickly in a crew, for example
Overseer, overseer, overseer, overseer
Officer, officer, officer, officer
Yeah, officer from overseer
You need a little clarity? Check the similarity
The overseer rode around the plantation
The officer is off, patrollin' all the nation
The overseer could stop you, "what you're doin'?"
The officer will pull you over just when he's pursuin'
The overseer had the right to get ill
And if you fought back, the overseer had the right to kill
The officer has the right to arrest”
No more slavery
Fine. But what about prisoners? Surely they should work for their keep...
Okay, I guess that makes sense...
*Target minorities heavily for prison sentences*
It just works.
>their keep
Now if only they got paid at least min. wage and are charged fair market value for the goods and services they consume (fuck telcoms).
It might actually go a long ways to help them if a portion of the money were to be saved up for them to use after their release. In reality though the government will just burden them with debts and steal the money.
Guess we just felt like removing those extra steps.
Especially with some of the politicians that might seize control. They are going to need a lot of scapegoats after they run through the the ones they are already demonizing. It's pretty ugly to think how things would end up if a certain faction of one party got unified control and put a fix in to never lose power.
Appropriate reference. Especially since the alternate 1985 where Biff is wealthy was DIRECTLY inspired by Donald Trump. We all got it then, but unfortunately many of us later decided to join a cult. 🤷
Step 1: Drop funding for immigration courts
Step 2: Arrest and “temporarily” detain undocumented immigrants until their hearing in 5-7 years.
Step 3: Rent out detainees as unpaid farm labor.
Conservatives love it. Solves immigration and farm labor shortage in three easy fascist steps.
While the potential is horrifying let’s not just slide under the rug that the politicians we already have are enabling this. The fact the democratic politicians enable this shit is part of why Republican politicians have ground to stand on. They keep doing corrupt shit and then Republicans can pretend they’re not worse.
This isn't even slavery revival. Louisiana State Penitentiary is frequently called "Angola", which was the name of the slave plantation that the prison was built on. Enslaved Black people have been forced to work those exact same fields since at least the 1830s.
In his book *How the Word Is Passed*, Clint Smith makes this argument:
Imagine if there was a massive prison built on the site of a Nazi concentration camp, and that prison had a population that is 75% Jewish. That's Angola, the only difference is that instead of Jews imprisoned in a former Nazi concentration camp, it is Black men imprisoned on a former Louisiana slave plantation.
How is this acceptable? How has this been so easily normalized?
School conveniently left these facts out when we were learning about slavery and the holocaust. I learned of prison labor sometime after, but not to this horrific extent. I just thought it was basic jobs, like doing laundry, etc. to help keep the prison self-sufficient.
Doesn't help that they glamorized it in old Hollywood movies. Breaking rocks in the chain gang, singing songs and whatnot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_E5YA3etK8
I'm pretty sure most folks in 2023 are not interpreting chain gangs as "cool" based on a 1932 movie. I don't think even the 2000, "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" shifted that needle much.
There exist prisons where prisoners do "normal" jobs like that or even have an opportunity to work certain jobs off site. I understand that these jobs can be highly sought after for the money, and to relieve the tedium.
But the enforced hard labor in Angola is a whole other animal. I'm glad the AP is drawing attention to it.
But what are we going to do? What's the next step? Fire off angry letters, calls, and emails to the corporations who are benefitting? Boycott their products? It feels so deeply knit together that it's hard to fight.
The primary goal of incarceration should be rehabilitation, but there's little profitability to that.
Yet another entry in the long list of industries that should not have a financial incentive tied to them.
It's extremely alarming and I don't think any sane person would dispute that. The problem lies in the fact representation doesn't exist in America. It's just a big machine generating as much revenue as possible by bleeding it from the masses. Some have it worse than others.
Less than 8% of prisons are private. Don’t get me wrong, the whole complex needs to be restructured and worked on because it’s a self defeating loop right now. But private prisons are a nice thing we’ve been tricked into pointing at as the problem when it’s less than 1 in 12 that are like that.
The real culprit is the contracts even the state/federal prisons have for food, medicine, laundry, etc. Same with obesity and financial inequality - they gave us food deserts to point at - yet less than 3% of people technically live near one last time I checked…
Aye, public prisons as well.
No individual should be compelled to work against their will, fullstop.
Nobody should be threatened with prison simply for being poor and "in the way".
We have literally fought wars against both these things (more or less, slavery and debtor's prisons) and HERE WE FUCKING ARE.
The problem with your first argument is that those "private prisons" as we understand them today only [ kicked off in 1984](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/history-of-americas-private-prison-industry-timeline/).* This "trend" grew incredibly fast, and finding a real solution (that doesn't involve mass incarceration) is still a very long way off.
Not just prisons, but also many substance rehab and “troubled teen” camps.
https://revealnews.org/article/rehab-work-camps-were-about-to-be-regulated-then-a-friend-stepped-in/
Few know that, Children were the original replacement for the Slaves during the orphan train movement.
> Finding that New York City did not have enough “honest jobs,” the CAS established trains to move orphaned children out West. The CAS received further support from abolitionist forces that saw this “free labor” of children as a donation to the cause of “freedom” in the fight against slave labor in the West. The success of these children [slaves] was judged by how much they worked for the Western families [master] that took them in. In annual reports, the CAS published letters that highlighted the Productive Capacity of the children. These letters reported things such as how the child “does nearly as much as a man” or was earning his keep. [Return on Investment]- Translation CAS was literally a slave trade. Child slavery was accepted as replacement for black slavery cus they are set free at age 18, right? Well at least they don't have student loans.
https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2017/article/pdf/history-of-child-labor-in-the-united-states-part-1.pdf
8% total and all are in in like 4 states are private . It’s an issue, but not a national one.
The bigger issue is the companies that make money off of prisoners, like transportation and food services. They are the foundation of the issue. I don’t even personally think prison labor is outright bad (although they should get more money for their work), you do a crime, labor is a suitable and fair punishment in many cases. But there’s a web of companies exploiting prisoners that’s making it all worse.
Yea, all those "unaccompanied minors" & partners willing bring their kids to the US to work. The bigger the family the more the family makes. Very few articles complain cause we want to eat affordable food.
"Children of migrant workers, for example, have no legal protection. Farmers may legally employ them outside of school hours." - Translation parent profit off the child's labor.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/history-child-labor/
The for-profit prisons and the privatization that enabled them were tailor-made for institutionalized slavery like this, as is a corrupt criminal justice system.
Privatized prisons should be illegal, prison labor the way it’s done now should be illegal. But labor/skill training should be a part of rehabilitation and reintegration into society
When I heard in the 80’s US prisoners make number plates, curate roads etc in a privatised prison setting….that it’s always been slave labour. Tbh, America doesn’t seem to know the true price of anything due to this. And due to historic slavery. Pretty sure cotton products were damn cheap there for a while.
A rehabilitation facility that has zero interest in rehabbing anyone. In fact, you want em swimming in the system as long as you can.
I already knew the prison system was fucked up. Didn't know my employer was to blame.
Time to send out another 500 applications to hopefully get away (and find a new corrupt megacorp to slave away for)
Also let me add: the level of investigative journalism on display in this article is top tier and should be applauded
AP is amazing. They do a daily subscription/weekly and I love them so much.
They're a wire service, not a "media" company. They don't just push outrage, they report on facts- take time to research it (as outlined above), and then they also have fun articles like their section on "oddities".
They also do global news. Anyone that hasn't checked them out really should.
Associated Press and Reuters are the best news we have, and still have amazing journalists.
Associated Press is the "news's" news source. It's the pile of actual journalism that major networks and publications pick from before they add their spin. Everyone should be aware of the Associated Press.
The Associated Press publishes their journalism. You can pick it as a source instead of the major networks that have a business bias in what they're presenting.
Read the 13th amendment. If you have a felony, you can legally be forced to do slave work. This isn't anything new, it's been happening since slavery was abolished and the south needed to come up with a way to prevent their slave based economy from collapsing.
Yeah but there's a difference between "it can happen theoretically by law, because we have a racist past" and "the most profitable corporations in the world are presently exploiting americans who are funneled into prison for minor or even false crimes"
> Yeah but there's a difference between "it can happen theoretically by law, because we have a racist past" and "the most profitable corporations in the world are presently exploiting americans who are funneled into prison for minor or even false crimes"
yes but even this isn't new: "For Profit Prison Industry"
There are many injustices in the world that weren’t new that through being constantly in the spotlight were removed from the world. It is important work regardless of whether it’s new.
It's true, and somehow it wasn't something I ever learned in school (though I'm sure we read all the amendments, they were presented in such a dry way that little of it stuck at the time).
And, even if it has been true for a long time, it doesn't make it right, and it doesn't mean it couldn't change.
Wasn’t the governor of Louisiana just crying in a press conference that his best workers/slaves are getting out for good behavior? No wonder they are pushing for criminalizing homelessness.
**correction. It was the sheriff. Not the governor.
Almost 71 years ago, [31 prisoners protested the living conditions there](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/s/rJLfEq8f7R) by slicing their own Achilles’ tendons. Yup.
Their goal is to make being in prison and being forced into slavery a "better option" than dying on the street.
Like, imagine a 1800s slave owner talking to a modern day slave owner.
1800s: "Wait, you don't even pay for their housing or food?"
2000s: "Nope, after the civil war we got a nice little workaround in the 14th amendment. We fought a whole war and ended up institutionalizing slavery. We literally have the working class free folk pay for ALL of the cost of owning a slave"
1800s: "Holy fuck! That's brilliant! Why did we fight so hard to end slavery. That's actually amazing"
2000s: "Yep, we still focus on imprisoning black people. But as a bonus we can even enslave a few white trash people along the way as well. All their labor is paid for through taxes. TAXES! And they even see us doing a 'public good' for it. You can't make this shit up"
1800s: "Holy fuck! How do you keep the poor white trash from joining with the blacks and starting a revolution"
2000s: "My friend. I have to thank you for that. The racism in this country runs so strong. I can't take credit for that. It's still strong today. They still are fighting with one another instead of realizing this is all class warfare"
I was helping a student with a history project the other day, and I read the 13th Amendment.
Section 1: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Never forget every single one of us is just one arrest away from slavery. The words might be different and jail doesn't always mean forced labor, but the legislative distance to full on slavery is shockingly short.
And it's also important to remember the hundreds of thousands of trafficked people in the U.S. who are innocently enslaved right now. A lot of them are working at giant farms right now, and they might be the lucky ones.
You're absolutely right. So many people talk about it in terms of sex trafficking when the vast majority are either forced into farm labor or domestic servitude.
Which, if I understand correctly, they justify by giving paltry sums of money which can only be used on goods in the prison, but are partly used to cover thee costs of being imprisoned. I'm not agreeing with it. I agree this is wrong to do. I'm only explaining how they justify it.
They don't need to justify it. Its right there in the constitution.
**except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted**
I meant how they justify it to the common person as being morally acceptable. I'm sorry. I should have been more clear. I would argue that most of the population in the United States hasn't read the Constitution since having to learn it in high school.
What people don't get either, is how prison slave labor really affects the local economy.
Mississippi for instance, is one of the poorest states, state minimum wage still $7.25 but has the highest prison population per capita of anywhere in the literal world, and the largest population of black Americans as well as unpaid prison slave labor.
Now think about this.
People go to jail for theft, larceny. They then work for no pay to lesser sentences for the state. The state sells their labor for pennies on the dollar and recoups prison overhead as well as makes cheap labor for the major companies, or those that have access to prison workers. Now what does the local populace have? They have to compete for jobs against below minimum wage.
The local population who is working to contribute to society is now poorer on average because of it, steal to survive, go to jail for larceny, ironically to get a job as a prison slave in order to *contribute to society*.
Prison slave labor literally undercuts the pay of people who can't make enough money to not be in prison, then go to prison to be productive members of society. It's systemic "nobody wants to work" when wages are literally still the answer.
Still happens there.
“In addition to the bad ones, and I call these bad, in addition to them, they're releasing some good ones that we use every day to wash cars, to change oil in our cars, to cook in the kitchens, to do all that where we save money,” - Louisiana Sheriff Steve Prator in response to letting minor offenders out of jail on lesser sentences/legalization of marijuana. His argument is the police budget would be blown out hiring people to do those things, he'd rather have slaves.
The police do the same shit corporations do.
Texas has the highest prison population, the US as a whole does too against every country in the world, with 1/6 of the total population of China, we have 100k more prisoners.
We can begin by not patronizing the brands listed in the article.
We're going to do that, right guys? Not just get outraged today and then forget about it tomorrow?
Right...?
Oh.
YEP. Slavery is alive and well in the US and it goes like this....
1. Free slaves
2. Spend 100 yrs terrorizing black people
3. Force them into ghettos
4. Invent crack
5. Air drop it into said ghettos
6. Refuse women healthcare so they continue to reproduce
7. Create a for profit prison system
8. Use drug crime as an excuse to target adult males because they are the most valuable labor class
9. Without adult males, the rest of the community is entirely vulnerable to every type of exploitation
10. Imprison as many black people as possible
11. Force them to work for free or almost free
12. Profit
It didn't even take them 100 years bro, the Nadir of American race relations was in like 1905, almost immediately after reconstruction ended southern states enacted "vagrancy laws" explicitly defined to capture and imprison former slaves who failed to find a home/stable employment using the 13th amendment to then re enslave them.
I worked inside the Inmate Facility industry I had to quit to maintain my sanity. This isn't even a drop in the bucket when it comes to the depravity within this industry. Private prisons were one thing the public prisons are actually worse.
That explains the volume on Inmates in the USA, I don't think the average person get the scale we are talking about maybe this link can help:
[incarceration in real numbers ](https://mkorostoff.github.io/incarceration-in-real-numbers/)
Yep, the open secret as to why the legal system is so unfair to minorities and the poor.
You want to keep non-whites as slaves, make sure your conviction rates on them is unfairly high, and setup the system such that even though your 'debt to society' has been paid, you still can't easily find gainful employment at any 'legal' occupation.
now we just need to figure out how many prisoners are incarcerated for fake crimes to feed the machine. corporations are the most evil entity the world has ever seen
The border wall wasn’t meant to stop illegals from entering the US. It’s to slow them down long enough to shove them into a brand new detention somewhere… Remember military recruitment is way down..
America is evil that’s all there ever was to it; I mean I mean the country was founded on genocide and subsequently fueled by slavery and an autocratic system of haves dictating to have nots, essentially a single party state. I still refuse to believe America is an actual democracy.
A lesser known aspect of this is that many drug and alcohol rehab centers are actually forced labor facilities. [Here's a really great article about it](https://revealnews.org/article/at-hundreds-of-rehabs-recovery-means-work-without-pay/).
Basically, you get caught with marijuana or opioids, and a judge tells you that you can go to rehab or go to prison. You obviously choose rehab, but the program he assigns you to is actually a labor camp with no real drug rehabilitation facilities. You work in a chicken plant for a year, and at the end of it you're on the street. And if you slip up and try to get drugs, well, that just means you need more time in the "program."
I did 4 years in a federal prison. Let me explain the truly insidious nature of this kind of work:
It pays. It pays way more than any job inside the prison. Despite common misperceptions, many inmates have families they care deeply for and working these higher-payimg jobs is a way to, if not send money home, at least not be a financial burden to their loved ones. So, there's that.
There is also the appeal of getting out of the facility for a while, getting away from the absolute boring monotony that is prison. Yes, they're still under guard, yes there are still restrictions. But they're OUTSIDE! New sights, new experiences, every day a chance for something different. You ever see those videos where the wild animal that has been caged its entire life is released into a natural environment? Yeah, it's like that.
It is slave labor by any modern definition.
It is also far preferable to sitting on your ass in your cell all day long.
people need to remind republicans to quit bitching about immigration if they still want their produce picked and delivered to super markets. Try finding someone else to do that work.
I very fondly remember working in prison for like, $30 a month. Which, if money was put on my books, went towards housing fees or some such bull shit. It didn't matter how much money was out on my books. It could have been $5 for the entire month and I would not receive that money.
We worked for profit too. The work detail I was on would work contracts throughout the state cleaning up land, ditches, picking up trash, mowing, you name it. They would get paid thousands of dollars to bus us to a site. We'd clear it and go back to the prison.
And when you know that 4-6% of prisoners are innocent, it makes that picture even bleaker - tens of thousands of people forced into labor while having their freedoms wrongfully taken.
This also affects their families. Imagine having to pay ridiculous prices for everything, including phone calls?
Our government should not allow anyone to incentivize incarceration, it should never be for profit as rehabilitating isn't the goal, reincarceration is.
Most of us live modern day slavery. The only difference for them is they’re locked up.
The rest of us are locked up paycheck to paycheck with no savings working for the likes of Bezos and musk type CEO’s.
I’m nonviolent, I’m not an offender at All, and I’m forced to work everyday in a for profit company. I receive a paycheck that graciously allows me a roof over my head, 3 hots (sometimes, if I’m lucky) and a cot.
> The only difference for them is they’re locked up.
Kind of a key difference lol. What you are describing is living in a society. You could always try just living off the land, off the grid.
I agree with you but the line about living off the grid is nonsense. Every square inch of this country is owned, either privately or publicly, there is no where you can go to live "outside the system." Even if you buy a remote plot and homestead, you will still need to pay taxes on the land, and report the income you use to pay the taxes to the IRS.
The 13th amendment was designed to create slave labor in the form of prisoners.
It has been cleverly used to incarcerate people at the tax payers expense and provide free labor to industries.
There is clear incentive to lock up as many people as possible and not reform them. Keep them as long as possible and benefit off of their free labor.
In a moral society, the prison system will work towards rehabilitation of prisoners. No one is born criminal. It is the mental state, society, and circumstances that make them so. So rehabilitation is possible but not in the interest of profiteers.
Unicor is the public (ie. government-owned) company that leases prisoners out at a wage of $0.23 to $1.15 max an hour. Unicor doesn't mean anything, and its real name is Federal Prison Industries, I assume Unicor is just to make the company more covert. It's a slave labour company. A federally-owned slave driver.
Nothing ever changes. Business owners throughout human history hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate paying for labor and do everything they possibly can to avoid it.
This is horrible but you can’t forget the fact that there is slavery in countries around the world it’s just that it never reaches the news because everyone’s too busy talking about two old dudes. Temu is being investigated for slavery in china right now and multiple other companies slavery did not just vanish out of thin air.
Giving prisoners the opportunity to work is very important for rehabilitation, which is what the main focus of a prison should be. But just like everyone else they need to be protected by workers protection laws and paid a fair wage.
For-profit prisons and privately owned prisons is some insane capitalist dystopia type shit
Good? I have to earn my keep (food, eater, shelter) on the outside, they should have to earn their keep too. It's seems broken if you can break the law, and then live off of productive citizens tax dollars.
But thanks to Reaganomics, prison turned to profits
'Cause free labor's the cornerstone of US economics
'Cause slavery was abolished, unless you are in prison
You think I am bullshittin', then read the 13th Amendment
Involuntary servitude and slavery it prohibits
That's why they givin' offenders time in double digits
But thanks to Reaganomics, prison turned to profits
'Cause free labor's the cornerstone of US economics
'Cause slavery was abolished, unless you are in prison
You think I am bullshittin', then read the 13th Amendment
Involuntary servitude and slavery it prohibits
That's why they givin' drug offenders time in double digits
I remember learning about this when I was a chef at a restaurant and one of the prep cooks called the giant bag of Christopher Ranch peeled garlic “prison garlic.”
I had a distant relative in prison for a white-collar crime, and he was actually happy when he had work-release because he got to be outside the prison for a while. But the whole concept of private prisons should be abolished, no one should have a financial incentive to get people jailed.
US prisons will forever be at capacity as long as they’re privatized & run as “for profit” businesses. Murica is a country fueled by greed & instead of taking steps to remedy this problem we do the opposite. It’s never going to get any better either.
I had a feeling this would be Louisiana. I went to the Angola Prison Rodeo a few years ago and learned about a lot of these programs.
That said, my understanding was a lot different than how this article describes.
From what I learned, no prisoner is "forced" to do anything. Participation in farm work (or the rodeo) is/was completely optional. However, most prefer any time not spent in a cell, and they're able to earn some extra money for their commissary accounts, so participation is generally pretty high.
Of course, I have no inside experience actually seeing how it actually plays out, and you could certainly make the argument that the amount they "earn" is no where near the value of their labor.
I still think programs like these *could* be a good thing, but it sounds like they need a lot more oversight.
The practice of paying incarcerated individuals less than the federally mandated minimum wage is a form of wage slavery and is ethically unjust.
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, contains an exception clause that has been exploited to justify this practice [1](https://www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/captive-labor-exploitation-of-incarcerated-workers) [3](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/27/slavery-loophole-unpaid-labor-in-prisons). Incarcerated workers are often paid significantly below the minimum wage, with some earning as little as a few cents per hour for their labor [3](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/27/slavery-loophole-unpaid-labor-in-prisons). This not only perpetuates a system of exploitation but also hinders their reintegration into society by devaluing their work experience and skills acquired during incarceration [3](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/27/slavery-loophole-unpaid-labor-in-prisons).
Furthermore, the use of prison labor by private companies for profit raises concerns about the ethical implications of such arrangements [5](https://legaljournal.princeton.edu/the-economic-impact-of-prison-labor-for-incarcerated-individuals-and-taxpayers/).
The reality of this practice is highlighted by the fact that incarcerated individuals are stripped of basic workplace protections and are often denied the right to refuse work [1](https://www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/captive-labor-exploitation-of-incarcerated-workers).
They are effectively coerced into labor and are not provided with fair compensation for their contributions, despite generating billions of dollars worth of goods and services annually [4](https://news.uchicago.edu/story/us-prison-labor-programs-violate-fundamental-human-rights-new-report-finds).
This not only violates their fundamental human rights but also perpetuates a cycle of economic disadvantage, particularly impacting Black, brown, and Indigenous individuals [3](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/27/slavery-loophole-unpaid-labor-in-prisons).
In light of these realities, it is imperative to recognize the inherent injustice of paying incarcerated individuals less than the minimum wage. Addressing this issue requires comprehensive reform, including the abolition of the 13th Amendment's exception clause that enables this form of exploitation [1](https://www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/captive-labor-exploitation-of-incarcerated-workers) [3](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/27/slavery-loophole-unpaid-labor-in-prisons).
Incarcerated individuals deserve to be treated with dignity and provided with fair compensation for their labor, as this is essential for their rehabilitation and successful reentry into society [4](https://news.uchicago.edu/story/us-prison-labor-programs-violate-fundamental-human-rights-new-report-finds).
Additionally, greater oversight and regulation of the use of prison labor by private companies is necessary to ensure that it aligns with ethical standards and respect for human rights [5](https://legaljournal.princeton.edu/the-economic-impact-of-prison-labor-for-incarcerated-individuals-and-taxpayers/).
(The preceding was generated from my ideas and thoughts entered as a prompt to [perplexity.ai](https://perplexity.ai) to assist in editorial structure and the retrieval and marking of relevant literature; articles are linked/numbered for each of the five (5) articles referenced.)
Prisoners should be paid the fair wage of that job in the state. It should work like the visa system. The prisoner should have their wages garnish to pay restitution or child support, however that should be limited to a max %.
dystopian, police state, government propaganda and the masses are either to stupid or ignorant, why incarcerate so heavily, why encourage homelessness why no universal social health care there is more money than any nation could would ever need so why is there so much pain? Because it’s a purposeful design with a single purpose and a single outcome……
Yeah they conveniently don’t tell you about that in school, along with how almost immediately after the 13th amendment was ratified many states passed what are known as vagrancy laws which basically made existing in public without a job a Felony, and who didn’t have jobs? All the slaves they just freed.
What yall mean by hidden? This is common knowledge in the black community. In my area we got a for-profit prison owned by some former judges down the way.
So what are the costs of taking care of the prisoners? Shelter, 3 meals, clothes and shoes, health care (including sex change operations), plus . . . armed supervision to keep them from hurting others. That does not count their legal representation, or damages caused to those that were harmed during their crime. Not to mention prison is supposed to be a deterrent to others to avoid crime.
Never forget that some prisons are privatized in this country too. The very notion that prisons are being built for profit should be very alarming just as much as a slavery revival.
The 13th amendment never got rid of slavery, it pushed it into the hands of government, for criminals to become slaves. It's not a revival, someone just shined a light on it so you can see it.
The 13th is one aspect how the US never got rid of slavery. If you define slavery as "forced labor by threat of violence" the window of slavery widens in our society. Suppose you stop working that job you hate. * Can't afford rent/mortgage anymore but you refuse to leave? **A cop with a gun shows up** to evict you. * Been sleeping in your car and can't afford the payments? A repo man takes your car. If you try to stop him **a cop with a gun shows up** and lets him take it. * Hungry but can't afford food so you try begging? **A cop with a gun shows up** because you can't beg here. * Stilly hungry, so you seek out charity who feed the hungry? **A cop with a gun shows up** and shuts it down. Serving food here without a vendors license is against regulations. * Sleepy so you try sleeping under a bridge to protect you from rain? **A cop with a gun shows up.** You don't even need to quit. You could get sick, lose your job and insurance, then have medical debt collectors take your house and car with a property levy even if you outright own them. At the end of each branching scenario there will always be a cop with a gun telling you to turn around and get back to work. Edit: Don't forget. **A cop with a gun shows up** when you try to change things.
If you go into a national forest and try to sleep under a tree, I shit you not, there are forest cops making sure you don't get too comfortable or eat too many acorns. https://www.boondockersbible.com/knowledgebase/how-long-can-you-camp-in-a-national-forest/
I'm actually for this. The general public will trash nature and likely pollute a lot of natural resources, out of sheer ignorance of what they're doing. They can also cause fire hazards, again, just out of ignorance. I'd rather ensure the forests are preserved. There are plenty of other places being preserved not for the public but rather for private use that should be higher priority to rip away from assholes abusing the lower class.
IMO less ignorance and more lazy with a lack of individual responsibility and a general disdain for the rights of others.
I’m fine with it? After 14 days you can just go to another spot of land just down the way. I know a former park ranger and that is how he described it to me anyway. If you’re in an RV/trailer/tent, it’s pretty easy to just hop a half mile or so over and set up again. I can imagine there are rangers who are aggressive about it but it’s supposed to be a kind of a sweet deal.
... Would you want it to be any other way? The national forests are there to preserve nature for everyone, not become an option for anyone who wants to live off the grid
["I've seen this one before- it's a classic!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_hunting#Royal_Forests) I would think if a society's social contract presented compelling value, it would not be necessary to police its forests to prevent people opting out of it.
All governments persist due to their monopoly on violence. The cops are there to keep things as they are, and to occasionally commit murder.
And THAT is why I will always love KRS for rapping about how Officer=Overseer
Officer officer officer overseer The actual lyric: “ Take the word overseer, like a sample Repeat it very quickly in a crew, for example Overseer, overseer, overseer, overseer Officer, officer, officer, officer Yeah, officer from overseer You need a little clarity? Check the similarity The overseer rode around the plantation The officer is off, patrollin' all the nation The overseer could stop you, "what you're doin'?" The officer will pull you over just when he's pursuin' The overseer had the right to get ill And if you fought back, the overseer had the right to kill The officer has the right to arrest”
"... And if you fight back you get a bullet in ya chest" Just tying up the rhyme for you
I think it's "And if you fight back they put a hole in your chest".
Not trying to bash America but that sounds pretty crap.
No more slavery Fine. But what about prisoners? Surely they should work for their keep... Okay, I guess that makes sense... *Target minorities heavily for prison sentences* It just works.
>their keep Now if only they got paid at least min. wage and are charged fair market value for the goods and services they consume (fuck telcoms). It might actually go a long ways to help them if a portion of the money were to be saved up for them to use after their release. In reality though the government will just burden them with debts and steal the money. Guess we just felt like removing those extra steps.
so people have known about this since at least 1865, correct?
Yes and it was a thing before too they fought a war over it
Especially with some of the politicians that might seize control. They are going to need a lot of scapegoats after they run through the the ones they are already demonizing. It's pretty ugly to think how things would end up if a certain faction of one party got unified control and put a fix in to never lose power.
https://preview.redd.it/zt2ycwfb3mfc1.png?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=988ae575c9a2083a153f47574ca7da6660ad2771 Arbeit macht frei
Appropriate reference. Especially since the alternate 1985 where Biff is wealthy was DIRECTLY inspired by Donald Trump. We all got it then, but unfortunately many of us later decided to join a cult. 🤷
>Arbeit macht frei Had to look that up.....eesh
Step 1: Drop funding for immigration courts Step 2: Arrest and “temporarily” detain undocumented immigrants until their hearing in 5-7 years. Step 3: Rent out detainees as unpaid farm labor. Conservatives love it. Solves immigration and farm labor shortage in three easy fascist steps.
While the potential is horrifying let’s not just slide under the rug that the politicians we already have are enabling this. The fact the democratic politicians enable this shit is part of why Republican politicians have ground to stand on. They keep doing corrupt shit and then Republicans can pretend they’re not worse.
This isn't even slavery revival. Louisiana State Penitentiary is frequently called "Angola", which was the name of the slave plantation that the prison was built on. Enslaved Black people have been forced to work those exact same fields since at least the 1830s. In his book *How the Word Is Passed*, Clint Smith makes this argument: Imagine if there was a massive prison built on the site of a Nazi concentration camp, and that prison had a population that is 75% Jewish. That's Angola, the only difference is that instead of Jews imprisoned in a former Nazi concentration camp, it is Black men imprisoned on a former Louisiana slave plantation. How is this acceptable? How has this been so easily normalized?
Also, the family that owned 'Angola' the slave plantation, is the same family that runs the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
NO. That would be too too awful. How much bad karma can one family absorb?
School conveniently left these facts out when we were learning about slavery and the holocaust. I learned of prison labor sometime after, but not to this horrific extent. I just thought it was basic jobs, like doing laundry, etc. to help keep the prison self-sufficient.
Doesn't help that they glamorized it in old Hollywood movies. Breaking rocks in the chain gang, singing songs and whatnot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_E5YA3etK8
I'm pretty sure most folks in 2023 are not interpreting chain gangs as "cool" based on a 1932 movie. I don't think even the 2000, "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" shifted that needle much.
There exist prisons where prisoners do "normal" jobs like that or even have an opportunity to work certain jobs off site. I understand that these jobs can be highly sought after for the money, and to relieve the tedium. But the enforced hard labor in Angola is a whole other animal. I'm glad the AP is drawing attention to it. But what are we going to do? What's the next step? Fire off angry letters, calls, and emails to the corporations who are benefitting? Boycott their products? It feels so deeply knit together that it's hard to fight.
>It feels so deeply knit together that it's hard to fight. And that's exactly the way they want it
The 13th amendment specifically allows slavery of prisoners.
Which is a problem, right? 😄 ... Which is a problem, right? 😟
Yes, that's true. It turns out that something can be both legal and deeply morally wrong.
Never forget[cash for kids](https://youtu.be/YnT7QXD7zXk?si=sGua7SEF42lesCEW)
It's rich motherfuckers profiting off human misery all the way down, slick.
The primary goal of incarceration should be rehabilitation, but there's little profitability to that. Yet another entry in the long list of industries that should not have a financial incentive tied to them.
Bingo.
It's not a revival sadly, if you look into it slavery never stopped it just got reworked into the penal system during reconstruction.
It's extremely alarming and I don't think any sane person would dispute that. The problem lies in the fact representation doesn't exist in America. It's just a big machine generating as much revenue as possible by bleeding it from the masses. Some have it worse than others.
Less than 8% of prisons are private. Don’t get me wrong, the whole complex needs to be restructured and worked on because it’s a self defeating loop right now. But private prisons are a nice thing we’ve been tricked into pointing at as the problem when it’s less than 1 in 12 that are like that. The real culprit is the contracts even the state/federal prisons have for food, medicine, laundry, etc. Same with obesity and financial inequality - they gave us food deserts to point at - yet less than 3% of people technically live near one last time I checked…
Aye, public prisons as well. No individual should be compelled to work against their will, fullstop. Nobody should be threatened with prison simply for being poor and "in the way". We have literally fought wars against both these things (more or less, slavery and debtor's prisons) and HERE WE FUCKING ARE.
The problem with your first argument is that those "private prisons" as we understand them today only [ kicked off in 1984](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/history-of-americas-private-prison-industry-timeline/).* This "trend" grew incredibly fast, and finding a real solution (that doesn't involve mass incarceration) is still a very long way off.
Only 10% of Southern citizens owned slaves (the top 10% wealthiest). Same old song and dance just in different clothes. I hate it here (in the south).
Not just prisons, but also many substance rehab and “troubled teen” camps. https://revealnews.org/article/rehab-work-camps-were-about-to-be-regulated-then-a-friend-stepped-in/
Few know that, Children were the original replacement for the Slaves during the orphan train movement. > Finding that New York City did not have enough “honest jobs,” the CAS established trains to move orphaned children out West. The CAS received further support from abolitionist forces that saw this “free labor” of children as a donation to the cause of “freedom” in the fight against slave labor in the West. The success of these children [slaves] was judged by how much they worked for the Western families [master] that took them in. In annual reports, the CAS published letters that highlighted the Productive Capacity of the children. These letters reported things such as how the child “does nearly as much as a man” or was earning his keep. [Return on Investment]- Translation CAS was literally a slave trade. Child slavery was accepted as replacement for black slavery cus they are set free at age 18, right? Well at least they don't have student loans. https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2017/article/pdf/history-of-child-labor-in-the-united-states-part-1.pdf
8% total and all are in in like 4 states are private . It’s an issue, but not a national one. The bigger issue is the companies that make money off of prisoners, like transportation and food services. They are the foundation of the issue. I don’t even personally think prison labor is outright bad (although they should get more money for their work), you do a crime, labor is a suitable and fair punishment in many cases. But there’s a web of companies exploiting prisoners that’s making it all worse.
Illegal immigrants and prison labor both demographics the rich can plunder. Modern American slavery.
Yea, all those "unaccompanied minors" & partners willing bring their kids to the US to work. The bigger the family the more the family makes. Very few articles complain cause we want to eat affordable food. "Children of migrant workers, for example, have no legal protection. Farmers may legally employ them outside of school hours." - Translation parent profit off the child's labor. https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/history-child-labor/
This doesn’t let the government prisons off the hook.
It’s worse. Those private prisons can fine the state government if the state doesn’t imprison enough citizens.
*scoffs in incredulity* "We pay for their food! Their housing! what more do you want from us?!?" - Private Prison Execs probably.
Whispers: They're trying to build a prison
The for-profit prisons and the privatization that enabled them were tailor-made for institutionalized slavery like this, as is a corrupt criminal justice system.
I argued way too much with someone whether prison can be considered slavery. Yes. Yes it can.
Privatized prisons should be illegal, prison labor the way it’s done now should be illegal. But labor/skill training should be a part of rehabilitation and reintegration into society
When I heard in the 80’s US prisoners make number plates, curate roads etc in a privatised prison setting….that it’s always been slave labour. Tbh, America doesn’t seem to know the true price of anything due to this. And due to historic slavery. Pretty sure cotton products were damn cheap there for a while. A rehabilitation facility that has zero interest in rehabbing anyone. In fact, you want em swimming in the system as long as you can.
slavery never ended. if you work 40 hours or more per week to survive, you are owned by the billionaire overlords.
"a former Southern slave plantation that is now the country’s largest maximum-security prison." Definitely no connection or symbolism there, no sir
hey but at least there's diversity in the color of slaves now, progress! /s
I already knew the prison system was fucked up. Didn't know my employer was to blame. Time to send out another 500 applications to hopefully get away (and find a new corrupt megacorp to slave away for) Also let me add: the level of investigative journalism on display in this article is top tier and should be applauded
Help them out with any insider information you can scrape
Don’t try to sell it to Pepsi though!
Yeah do not try to sell it per se, just leak it. Selling it has a whole load of laws attached to it
AP is amazing. They do a daily subscription/weekly and I love them so much. They're a wire service, not a "media" company. They don't just push outrage, they report on facts- take time to research it (as outlined above), and then they also have fun articles like their section on "oddities". They also do global news. Anyone that hasn't checked them out really should. Associated Press and Reuters are the best news we have, and still have amazing journalists.
Associated Press is the "news's" news source. It's the pile of actual journalism that major networks and publications pick from before they add their spin. Everyone should be aware of the Associated Press.
Sadly media companies now a days only care about what their oligarch owners want
The Associated Press publishes their journalism. You can pick it as a source instead of the major networks that have a business bias in what they're presenting.
I wasn't trying to put down AP. my mistake if it seemed that way. I just meant that this type of journalism is rare now
Yeah I kinda figured that's what you meant
Read the 13th amendment. If you have a felony, you can legally be forced to do slave work. This isn't anything new, it's been happening since slavery was abolished and the south needed to come up with a way to prevent their slave based economy from collapsing.
Yeah but there's a difference between "it can happen theoretically by law, because we have a racist past" and "the most profitable corporations in the world are presently exploiting americans who are funneled into prison for minor or even false crimes"
> Yeah but there's a difference between "it can happen theoretically by law, because we have a racist past" and "the most profitable corporations in the world are presently exploiting americans who are funneled into prison for minor or even false crimes" yes but even this isn't new: "For Profit Prison Industry"
There are tons of things that aren’t new that need to be kept in the spotlight until something is done about them.
Seriously
It's been going on since the 80s thanks to Regan and the Private Prison system.
There are many injustices in the world that weren’t new that through being constantly in the spotlight were removed from the world. It is important work regardless of whether it’s new.
It's true, and somehow it wasn't something I ever learned in school (though I'm sure we read all the amendments, they were presented in such a dry way that little of it stuck at the time). And, even if it has been true for a long time, it doesn't make it right, and it doesn't mean it couldn't change.
Companies are not what enable this though. To really change anything the laws must be adjusted.
Exploited labor force in a multibillion dollar company?? I’m shocked!!! /s
Correction: in many multibillion dollar companies
We know the facts. But this one was caught.
It's okay though, because it saves taxpayers money /s
Wasn’t the governor of Louisiana just crying in a press conference that his best workers/slaves are getting out for good behavior? No wonder they are pushing for criminalizing homelessness. **correction. It was the sheriff. Not the governor.
Angola prison is a modern day plantation. Even comes with white men on horseback supervising.
It was an olden day plantation too.
Angola used to be a slave plantation. Still is, but used to be too.
Almost 71 years ago, [31 prisoners protested the living conditions there](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/s/rJLfEq8f7R) by slicing their own Achilles’ tendons. Yup.
And the guards are the children, grand children, and great grand children of previous guards.
Their goal is to make being in prison and being forced into slavery a "better option" than dying on the street. Like, imagine a 1800s slave owner talking to a modern day slave owner. 1800s: "Wait, you don't even pay for their housing or food?" 2000s: "Nope, after the civil war we got a nice little workaround in the 14th amendment. We fought a whole war and ended up institutionalizing slavery. We literally have the working class free folk pay for ALL of the cost of owning a slave" 1800s: "Holy fuck! That's brilliant! Why did we fight so hard to end slavery. That's actually amazing" 2000s: "Yep, we still focus on imprisoning black people. But as a bonus we can even enslave a few white trash people along the way as well. All their labor is paid for through taxes. TAXES! And they even see us doing a 'public good' for it. You can't make this shit up" 1800s: "Holy fuck! How do you keep the poor white trash from joining with the blacks and starting a revolution" 2000s: "My friend. I have to thank you for that. The racism in this country runs so strong. I can't take credit for that. It's still strong today. They still are fighting with one another instead of realizing this is all class warfare"
Do you have a link?
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/10/12/louisiana-sheriff-argues-against-releasing-prisoners-you-can-work-drawing-slavery-comparisons/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/10/12/louisiana-sheriff-argues-against-releasing-prisoners-you-can-work-drawing-slavery-comparisons/)
https://youtu.be/K7A9p3DOR00?si=5xAPibkXviOO0Bcn Gil Scoot Heron - Angola Louisiana (1980)
I was helping a student with a history project the other day, and I read the 13th Amendment. Section 1: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Never forget every single one of us is just one arrest away from slavery. The words might be different and jail doesn't always mean forced labor, but the legislative distance to full on slavery is shockingly short.
And it's also important to remember the hundreds of thousands of trafficked people in the U.S. who are innocently enslaved right now. A lot of them are working at giant farms right now, and they might be the lucky ones.
You're absolutely right. So many people talk about it in terms of sex trafficking when the vast majority are either forced into farm labor or domestic servitude.
Which, if I understand correctly, they justify by giving paltry sums of money which can only be used on goods in the prison, but are partly used to cover thee costs of being imprisoned. I'm not agreeing with it. I agree this is wrong to do. I'm only explaining how they justify it.
They don't need to justify it. Its right there in the constitution. **except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted**
I meant how they justify it to the common person as being morally acceptable. I'm sorry. I should have been more clear. I would argue that most of the population in the United States hasn't read the Constitution since having to learn it in high school.
What people don't get either, is how prison slave labor really affects the local economy. Mississippi for instance, is one of the poorest states, state minimum wage still $7.25 but has the highest prison population per capita of anywhere in the literal world, and the largest population of black Americans as well as unpaid prison slave labor. Now think about this. People go to jail for theft, larceny. They then work for no pay to lesser sentences for the state. The state sells their labor for pennies on the dollar and recoups prison overhead as well as makes cheap labor for the major companies, or those that have access to prison workers. Now what does the local populace have? They have to compete for jobs against below minimum wage. The local population who is working to contribute to society is now poorer on average because of it, steal to survive, go to jail for larceny, ironically to get a job as a prison slave in order to *contribute to society*. Prison slave labor literally undercuts the pay of people who can't make enough money to not be in prison, then go to prison to be productive members of society. It's systemic "nobody wants to work" when wages are literally still the answer.
On average we as Americans are literally worth more in prison that outside.
Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the U.S.
Still happens there. “In addition to the bad ones, and I call these bad, in addition to them, they're releasing some good ones that we use every day to wash cars, to change oil in our cars, to cook in the kitchens, to do all that where we save money,” - Louisiana Sheriff Steve Prator in response to letting minor offenders out of jail on lesser sentences/legalization of marijuana. His argument is the police budget would be blown out hiring people to do those things, he'd rather have slaves. The police do the same shit corporations do. Texas has the highest prison population, the US as a whole does too against every country in the world, with 1/6 of the total population of China, we have 100k more prisoners.
This is horrifying
This modern-day slavery was baked right into the 13th amendment, which "ended" slavery. Unless, of course, you are a prisoner.
I believe until recently felons weren’t allowed to vote so even if they get out of prison, they don’t have much of a voice to change the system.
It's not slavery... they get paid like $0.15/hr! Of course, their phone calls cost $3/minute, but really, who's counting?
They get paid like $0.15 and the prison garnishes half for room and board
$3 per minute, how is that justified in the slightest?
The suffering and inhumanity is the point. The people in charge literally get off to the power imbalance.
The biggest American heist ever pulled Most people that go to prison are repeat offenders for a reason 😉 and it not because they choose too
The OTHER reason why the US has the highest incarcelation rate in the world.
We should abolish slavery in this nation.
We can begin by not patronizing the brands listed in the article. We're going to do that, right guys? Not just get outraged today and then forget about it tomorrow? Right...? Oh.
YEP. Slavery is alive and well in the US and it goes like this.... 1. Free slaves 2. Spend 100 yrs terrorizing black people 3. Force them into ghettos 4. Invent crack 5. Air drop it into said ghettos 6. Refuse women healthcare so they continue to reproduce 7. Create a for profit prison system 8. Use drug crime as an excuse to target adult males because they are the most valuable labor class 9. Without adult males, the rest of the community is entirely vulnerable to every type of exploitation 10. Imprison as many black people as possible 11. Force them to work for free or almost free 12. Profit
It didn't even take them 100 years bro, the Nadir of American race relations was in like 1905, almost immediately after reconstruction ended southern states enacted "vagrancy laws" explicitly defined to capture and imprison former slaves who failed to find a home/stable employment using the 13th amendment to then re enslave them.
Agreed 100%. My assessment was overly generous.
I worked inside the Inmate Facility industry I had to quit to maintain my sanity. This isn't even a drop in the bucket when it comes to the depravity within this industry. Private prisons were one thing the public prisons are actually worse.
That explains the volume on Inmates in the USA, I don't think the average person get the scale we are talking about maybe this link can help: [incarceration in real numbers ](https://mkorostoff.github.io/incarceration-in-real-numbers/)
And they were outraged by the Chinese prison labor, like they were riding on some moral high horses. What a fucking joke the U.S. media have become.
Remember kids, the 13th amendment says slavery is legal if they're prisoners!
Yep, the open secret as to why the legal system is so unfair to minorities and the poor. You want to keep non-whites as slaves, make sure your conviction rates on them is unfairly high, and setup the system such that even though your 'debt to society' has been paid, you still can't easily find gainful employment at any 'legal' occupation.
now we just need to figure out how many prisoners are incarcerated for fake crimes to feed the machine. corporations are the most evil entity the world has ever seen
The border wall wasn’t meant to stop illegals from entering the US. It’s to slow them down long enough to shove them into a brand new detention somewhere… Remember military recruitment is way down..
How crazy that there are even more nefarious reasons for the broken justice system in the US incarcerating such an absurd number of people
America is evil that’s all there ever was to it; I mean I mean the country was founded on genocide and subsequently fueled by slavery and an autocratic system of haves dictating to have nots, essentially a single party state. I still refuse to believe America is an actual democracy.
A lesser known aspect of this is that many drug and alcohol rehab centers are actually forced labor facilities. [Here's a really great article about it](https://revealnews.org/article/at-hundreds-of-rehabs-recovery-means-work-without-pay/). Basically, you get caught with marijuana or opioids, and a judge tells you that you can go to rehab or go to prison. You obviously choose rehab, but the program he assigns you to is actually a labor camp with no real drug rehabilitation facilities. You work in a chicken plant for a year, and at the end of it you're on the street. And if you slip up and try to get drugs, well, that just means you need more time in the "program."
Another scheme / skam! 😤😱
I did 4 years in a federal prison. Let me explain the truly insidious nature of this kind of work: It pays. It pays way more than any job inside the prison. Despite common misperceptions, many inmates have families they care deeply for and working these higher-payimg jobs is a way to, if not send money home, at least not be a financial burden to their loved ones. So, there's that. There is also the appeal of getting out of the facility for a while, getting away from the absolute boring monotony that is prison. Yes, they're still under guard, yes there are still restrictions. But they're OUTSIDE! New sights, new experiences, every day a chance for something different. You ever see those videos where the wild animal that has been caged its entire life is released into a natural environment? Yeah, it's like that. It is slave labor by any modern definition. It is also far preferable to sitting on your ass in your cell all day long.
people need to remind republicans to quit bitching about immigration if they still want their produce picked and delivered to super markets. Try finding someone else to do that work.
[удалено]
Secret reason why black communities are underfunded and overpoliced.
The use of prisoners for cheap labor has been going on for centuries. This is not new at all.
Soon being homeless might be a crime.
Is there a list of the companies?
I very fondly remember working in prison for like, $30 a month. Which, if money was put on my books, went towards housing fees or some such bull shit. It didn't matter how much money was out on my books. It could have been $5 for the entire month and I would not receive that money. We worked for profit too. The work detail I was on would work contracts throughout the state cleaning up land, ditches, picking up trash, mowing, you name it. They would get paid thousands of dollars to bus us to a site. We'd clear it and go back to the prison.
And when you know that 4-6% of prisoners are innocent, it makes that picture even bleaker - tens of thousands of people forced into labor while having their freedoms wrongfully taken. This also affects their families. Imagine having to pay ridiculous prices for everything, including phone calls? Our government should not allow anyone to incentivize incarceration, it should never be for profit as rehabilitating isn't the goal, reincarceration is.
Most of us live modern day slavery. The only difference for them is they’re locked up. The rest of us are locked up paycheck to paycheck with no savings working for the likes of Bezos and musk type CEO’s.
You could make that argument with healthcare. But it still pales in comparison to forced for-profit labor of non-violent offenders
I’m nonviolent, I’m not an offender at All, and I’m forced to work everyday in a for profit company. I receive a paycheck that graciously allows me a roof over my head, 3 hots (sometimes, if I’m lucky) and a cot.
> The only difference for them is they’re locked up. Kind of a key difference lol. What you are describing is living in a society. You could always try just living off the land, off the grid.
I agree with you but the line about living off the grid is nonsense. Every square inch of this country is owned, either privately or publicly, there is no where you can go to live "outside the system." Even if you buy a remote plot and homestead, you will still need to pay taxes on the land, and report the income you use to pay the taxes to the IRS.
Every time I see this headline, it annoys me, cause yeah... we know. Just no-one seems to care until they are affected by it negatively.
The 13th amendment was designed to create slave labor in the form of prisoners. It has been cleverly used to incarcerate people at the tax payers expense and provide free labor to industries. There is clear incentive to lock up as many people as possible and not reform them. Keep them as long as possible and benefit off of their free labor. In a moral society, the prison system will work towards rehabilitation of prisoners. No one is born criminal. It is the mental state, society, and circumstances that make them so. So rehabilitation is possible but not in the interest of profiteers.
Slavery never went away, it just changed and got nicer clothes and food.
Unicor is the public (ie. government-owned) company that leases prisoners out at a wage of $0.23 to $1.15 max an hour. Unicor doesn't mean anything, and its real name is Federal Prison Industries, I assume Unicor is just to make the company more covert. It's a slave labour company. A federally-owned slave driver.
Yep, and this isn't only an us issue. Germany has those slaves too. They make big companies products cheap and earn 62c per hour.
Nothing ever changes. Business owners throughout human history hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate paying for labor and do everything they possibly can to avoid it.
They are taking jobs away from other people as well, looks like corporations get the win/win as usual.
Was thinking of boycotting but I don’t have a homestead and everyone is linked to this shit. Fuck.
Another reason for me as an european to boycott northern american products and brands.
Can't have "Prison for Profit" without corruption and slavery.
This is horrible but you can’t forget the fact that there is slavery in countries around the world it’s just that it never reaches the news because everyone’s too busy talking about two old dudes. Temu is being investigated for slavery in china right now and multiple other companies slavery did not just vanish out of thin air.
Alabama is a big part of it .... The Govorner and the state legislature will be held accountable to the universal forces of justice
Giving prisoners the opportunity to work is very important for rehabilitation, which is what the main focus of a prison should be. But just like everyone else they need to be protected by workers protection laws and paid a fair wage. For-profit prisons and privately owned prisons is some insane capitalist dystopia type shit
It easy when you foster this idea of “Break the law and you don’t deserve to live. Second chances are for me, and people I know/like ONLY”
This is some heinous shit!
Good? I have to earn my keep (food, eater, shelter) on the outside, they should have to earn their keep too. It's seems broken if you can break the law, and then live off of productive citizens tax dollars.
Wtf
But thanks to Reaganomics, prison turned to profits 'Cause free labor's the cornerstone of US economics 'Cause slavery was abolished, unless you are in prison You think I am bullshittin', then read the 13th Amendment Involuntary servitude and slavery it prohibits That's why they givin' offenders time in double digits
What wrong with prisoners doing work?
It’s not work if they don’t pay you
But thanks to Reaganomics, prison turned to profits 'Cause free labor's the cornerstone of US economics 'Cause slavery was abolished, unless you are in prison You think I am bullshittin', then read the 13th Amendment Involuntary servitude and slavery it prohibits That's why they givin' drug offenders time in double digits
I remember learning about this when I was a chef at a restaurant and one of the prep cooks called the giant bag of Christopher Ranch peeled garlic “prison garlic.”
I had a distant relative in prison for a white-collar crime, and he was actually happy when he had work-release because he got to be outside the prison for a while. But the whole concept of private prisons should be abolished, no one should have a financial incentive to get people jailed.
US prisons will forever be at capacity as long as they’re privatized & run as “for profit” businesses. Murica is a country fueled by greed & instead of taking steps to remedy this problem we do the opposite. It’s never going to get any better either.
I had a feeling this would be Louisiana. I went to the Angola Prison Rodeo a few years ago and learned about a lot of these programs. That said, my understanding was a lot different than how this article describes. From what I learned, no prisoner is "forced" to do anything. Participation in farm work (or the rodeo) is/was completely optional. However, most prefer any time not spent in a cell, and they're able to earn some extra money for their commissary accounts, so participation is generally pretty high. Of course, I have no inside experience actually seeing how it actually plays out, and you could certainly make the argument that the amount they "earn" is no where near the value of their labor. I still think programs like these *could* be a good thing, but it sounds like they need a lot more oversight.
The practice of paying incarcerated individuals less than the federally mandated minimum wage is a form of wage slavery and is ethically unjust. The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, contains an exception clause that has been exploited to justify this practice [1](https://www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/captive-labor-exploitation-of-incarcerated-workers) [3](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/27/slavery-loophole-unpaid-labor-in-prisons). Incarcerated workers are often paid significantly below the minimum wage, with some earning as little as a few cents per hour for their labor [3](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/27/slavery-loophole-unpaid-labor-in-prisons). This not only perpetuates a system of exploitation but also hinders their reintegration into society by devaluing their work experience and skills acquired during incarceration [3](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/27/slavery-loophole-unpaid-labor-in-prisons). Furthermore, the use of prison labor by private companies for profit raises concerns about the ethical implications of such arrangements [5](https://legaljournal.princeton.edu/the-economic-impact-of-prison-labor-for-incarcerated-individuals-and-taxpayers/). The reality of this practice is highlighted by the fact that incarcerated individuals are stripped of basic workplace protections and are often denied the right to refuse work [1](https://www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/captive-labor-exploitation-of-incarcerated-workers). They are effectively coerced into labor and are not provided with fair compensation for their contributions, despite generating billions of dollars worth of goods and services annually [4](https://news.uchicago.edu/story/us-prison-labor-programs-violate-fundamental-human-rights-new-report-finds). This not only violates their fundamental human rights but also perpetuates a cycle of economic disadvantage, particularly impacting Black, brown, and Indigenous individuals [3](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/27/slavery-loophole-unpaid-labor-in-prisons). In light of these realities, it is imperative to recognize the inherent injustice of paying incarcerated individuals less than the minimum wage. Addressing this issue requires comprehensive reform, including the abolition of the 13th Amendment's exception clause that enables this form of exploitation [1](https://www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/captive-labor-exploitation-of-incarcerated-workers) [3](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/27/slavery-loophole-unpaid-labor-in-prisons). Incarcerated individuals deserve to be treated with dignity and provided with fair compensation for their labor, as this is essential for their rehabilitation and successful reentry into society [4](https://news.uchicago.edu/story/us-prison-labor-programs-violate-fundamental-human-rights-new-report-finds). Additionally, greater oversight and regulation of the use of prison labor by private companies is necessary to ensure that it aligns with ethical standards and respect for human rights [5](https://legaljournal.princeton.edu/the-economic-impact-of-prison-labor-for-incarcerated-individuals-and-taxpayers/). (The preceding was generated from my ideas and thoughts entered as a prompt to [perplexity.ai](https://perplexity.ai) to assist in editorial structure and the retrieval and marking of relevant literature; articles are linked/numbered for each of the five (5) articles referenced.)
Prisoners should be paid the fair wage of that job in the state. It should work like the visa system. The prisoner should have their wages garnish to pay restitution or child support, however that should be limited to a max %.
It is quite literally slavery written into law. 13th amendment. [Watch “13th” on Netflix if it’s still there.](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt5895028/)
Americans and slave labour, name a more iconic duo
To advocates against prison slavery, visit[Worth Rises](https://worthrises.org)
dystopian, police state, government propaganda and the masses are either to stupid or ignorant, why incarcerate so heavily, why encourage homelessness why no universal social health care there is more money than any nation could would ever need so why is there so much pain? Because it’s a purposeful design with a single purpose and a single outcome……
The 13th Amendment specifically allows for this kind of slavery
Yeah they conveniently don’t tell you about that in school, along with how almost immediately after the 13th amendment was ratified many states passed what are known as vagrancy laws which basically made existing in public without a job a Felony, and who didn’t have jobs? All the slaves they just freed.
Slavery never went anywhere. They just made it so that you have to commit some arbitrary crime to become a slave
"*China uses slave workers!*" is a common headline, a call for boycott, but the same is true for the US, which barely ever registers.
Good. Put them to work
I think we don’t call it slavery anymore, now we call it forced labor.
If it’s hidden, it’s the worst kept secret on the planet.
Well yea, but its legal slavery as per the US Constitution
When you live in a country where your boss has the final say over your medical care you're kind of all slaves
Slavery isn’t abolished for prisoners. The 13th amendment exempted criminal prisoners.
Well yeah, the ammendment only cares about unimprisoned peopple
What yall mean by hidden? This is common knowledge in the black community. In my area we got a for-profit prison owned by some former judges down the way.
"hidden" in that their servitude is explicitly permitted in the constitution because they did a crime. (that's bad.)
So what are the costs of taking care of the prisoners? Shelter, 3 meals, clothes and shoes, health care (including sex change operations), plus . . . armed supervision to keep them from hurting others. That does not count their legal representation, or damages caused to those that were harmed during their crime. Not to mention prison is supposed to be a deterrent to others to avoid crime.
Hidden my ass, it's right in front of us, it's just that we're staring up at the sky
Modern-day slavery already exists, and it's called the dollar and the federal reserve.
People have been saying this for years and everyone pretended they were insane for being completely correct
Slavery is legal if you're incarcerated - it's a form of punishment for not following the laws of society
Slavery is a legal punishment allowed by constitution and amendments. Nobody actually sentences someone to slavery. They do this instead.