Slavery in prisons

A Story by Mik

An essay written based on research.

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Translation: inmates have no constitutional rights. Slavery still exists, and people are okay with it, as long as it helps them make a profit. Exploiting incarcerated men and women is wrong. Minimum wage was instated for a reason.

During the Reconstruction era after the Civil War, the south began to establish huge prisons that were formerly slave plantations. Known as Parchman Farm then as Mississippi State Penitentiary, this plantation turned prison quickly began to fill with mostly black men and women. (Benns, 1) Prisons began convict-leasing programs, where, for a fee, they would lease the labor of inmates. Farmers began to use convict leasing instead of slavery not only because out right slavery was now illegal, but because it was cheaper than slavery. They didn't have to worry about the health of their "employees". The new-era criminal "justice" system allowed the state to determine the size of the worker pools. Tons of freed slaves and their descendants now labored for free to generate revenue under a Jim Crowe regime.

100 years later, our prison system has grown to house over 2 million people. With the second highest incarceration rate per capita, and the largest prison population in the world, the "duly convicted" population remains racially skewed. Inmates are required to work if cleared by a medical professional at the prison. If they try to refuse to work, they are punished with solitary confinement, revocation of family visits and loss of earned good time. They earn pennies by the hour, and there are very few exceptions. (Benns, 2)

Laboring within in-house operations or through convict-leasing partnerships with for-profit businesses, the inmates have worked with mining, agriculture, and all kinds of manufacturing, from making military weapons to sewing for Victoria's Secret. Some even staff call centers. Given the growth of the country within the past 100 years, you'd think some of the worker protection laws would apply to inmates. Alas, most of them do not. Employment law makes workers with the status "employee" a critical distinction. As an employee, you get protections. If you aren't classified as an employee, you do not. (Benns, 2) To determine this, courts aim to define the relationship between the parties. They assess whether the employer has control over the working conditions and also if the relationship is of an economic character or otherwise. So, based on what one judge decides, any "duly convicted" worker can be told they're not an employee. So what does that make them?

Inmates are not expressly excluded from the definition "employee"- they legally can't be. In situations where incarcerated workers sued their prison-employers, though, courts rule that the relationship between them is not primarily economic, rather, social. So, basically, whatever saves The Man™️. While these men and women are being forced to participate in manual labor and get paid mere pennies for it, the men and women on the other side of the fence make at least a minimum wage. Maybe they can't live on that either, but that's another story.

Another reason to be concerned about prison labor is looking at who works and who doesn't. What kind of jobs do they have? Is it what they wanted to do, or do they hate what they're doing? People outside of prison kill themselves because they hate their job- how much more likely is a person in prison to kill themselves if they hate their job? A lot more, according to the NCIA. A study released in May 2010 stated that only eight percent of suicides were committed after being put on suicide watch. The rate of suicides is 167 per 100,000 inmates. (Kulbarsh, 1) As Ta-Nehisi Coates says in his cover story for Atlantic, there are a series of risk factors in prison- mental illness, illiteracy, drug addiction and poverty. Over half of the inmates in prisons in the United States suffer from some kind of mental illness. (Kim, 1)

On the other side of this argument, Chandra Bozelko, an inmate at a maximum-security prison for 6 years, thinks prison labor is beneficial. Bozelko was paid anywhere from 75 cents to $1.75 per day to make and serve casserole. She considers the criticism of prison labor unfair and even counterproductive to reform the system. According to the director of the ACLU's National Prison Project, David Fathi, "We don't want prison policy driven by a desire for cheap labor."(Bozelko, 1) That's exactly what it is, though. Half of the American prison population is "employed", but somehow, they still owe us something. Their punishment is going to prison. Forcing them to work in bad conditions is slavery, not repayment.

Prison labor is admittedly not problem free. When private companies contract with prisons, the labor isn't cheap. They're required to pay minimum wage. The state garnishes the wages to "cover costs" of incarceration. If inmates are being cheated, it's not by the companies hiring them. It's the system that confines them. The way to protect these workers is the same inside as outside. Unionization. The pushback against prison labor should lie in the hopes of persuading wardens to allow physical and organizational safeguards for prisoners.

Even though many prisoners face terrible working conditions, and terrible consequences if they refuse, there are both good and bad aspects of prison labor. Incarcerated men and women get the "privilege" to work, and sustain some semblance of a normal life inside of prison. We hear of horror stories, and we hear of victorious ones too. Can we only know the truth by experiencing everything? Or do we get to decide what our truth is?

As you reconsider buying Victoria's Secret underwear, think about this. Those people are still earning money, even if it's not nearly enough. Even if their state takes their money, Victoria's Secret doesn't. While not defending or in support of prison labor, boycotting a store because of the wrongdoings of the state, I feel, is an inadequate punishment. If you want to fix our prison system, fight for reform. Don't fight to demolish the systems that are trying, if not succeeding, in helping form the future life of someone who desperately needs it.

Still standing by the belief that prison labor is wrong, there are more angles than originally known. Reading from the perspective of a woman who served six years, made casserole the whole time, and liked it, was enlightening. The fact that she could see the light even in the darkest times, seemed brave. The whole point is that we shouldn't demolish these systems, we should improve them. Unionization, fighting for better regulations and standing up for what is right should do the trick.