How Slavery Still Exists in USA Through Our Prison System
Did you know that able-bodied prisoners are forced to work in different industries, at extremely low wage rates? After the privatization of prisons, prisoners have been turned into modern slaves. This has been allowed by the U.S government, since the 13th Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime.
Prisoners can work in many different industries. Their tasks can range from rope making to carpentry, coal mining, shoe production, and even rifle manufacturing. This is massively profitable for companies who hire prison labor and it has become an integral part of the United States economy.
Prisoners are paid sub-minimum wages while the industry itself had an estimated annual value of $2 billion in prison and jail industrial output in 2017. Sub-minimum hourly wages vary according to state. This applies to the required 100% able-bodied sentenced federal prisoners put to work. The following chart displays how much a prisoners earns per hour according to the state the prison is located in.
Photo Credit: Prison Policy Initiative
Pay attention that information for some states like Colorado was missing. Obtaining the information of how much people in prison are paid is extremely hard to trace. They also may mean that the profit-prisons pay nothing to its prisoners. All the while, prisoners are not allowed to form unions nor have access to their rights.
For those that argue that prisoners don’t deserve to be paid because of the crimes they committed, remember that every human continues being human. With a pay of 17 cents an hour, a prisoner would have to work 5.88 hours to afford a $1 dollar phone call to their family. Plus, prisoners are forced to pay a copay for medical care like those in Texas Correctional Industries, an arm of the state Department of Justice. How many hours would one person earning 17 cents have to work to afford a $100 copay? (588 hours …73.5 days of 8 hour shifts …) That equates to two and a half months worth of work!
To put things into perspective, garment workers in Bangladesh earn about $0.95 an hour. In contrast to American prison labor rates, people working in third world sweatshops are often earning MORE than Americans housed miles from us. This is because the average minimum daily wage for prison labor is 86 cents. All the while, prisons are now paying less than previous years. In addition, some states such as Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Texas still leave regular prison labor unpaid. This comes at a high cost to society since for-profit prisons are focusing on contracting labor instead of seeing the human value of providing vocational training and GED corrections programs, which could reduce recidivism.
In addition to forced labor, prisoners have to suffer being in overcrowded prison (which are in terrible conditions), endure violence and suffer sexual assaults. Reports indicate that they may not have working toilets, that the lights don’t turn on and rats are rampant.
According to NAACP, imprisoning people has become extremely profitable for prisons who guarantee labor in long term contracts. Although African Americans and Caucasians use drugs at roughly the same rate, African Americans are six times more likely to be thrown in prison. For-profit prisons are therefore functioning on racial inequality to remain profitable. They are seeking to imprison African Americans to meet labor contracts, whether those they imprison are guilty or not.
In 2016, Obama and the Justice department passed legislation that phased out for-profit prisons. However, Trump rolled back those laws by his law-and-order platform and for-profit prisons are now back on the rise. This is unequally impacting colored communities, which only tears families apart and continuously perpetuates more violence.
Modern slavery is alive and thriving. Humans are still being stripped of their political rights, are being 100% controlled and are inflicted severe discipline if they do not follow orders. These human beings are seen as disposable because companies that lease convicts can dispose of their rented labor as they see fit. In addition, prisoners are perceived alike to human robots. There are reports that prisoners are forced to work in total silence and any hand gestures or eye contact is prohibited. Supervision of prison labor is a shared duty of the company’s employers and prison authorities, whether within prison walls or outside of them.