prisoners working under contract Credit: popular resistance
Once slavery was abolished in 1865, manufacturers scrambled to find other sources of cheap labor—and because the 13th amendment banned slavery (except as punishment for crimes), they didn’t have to look too far. Prisons and big businesses have now been exploiting this loophole in the 13th amendment for over a century.
“Insourcing,” as prison labor is often called, is an even cheaper alternative to outsourcing. Instead of sending labor over to China or Bangladesh, manufacturers have chosen to forcibly employ the 2.4 million incarcerated people in the United States. Chances are high that if a product you’re holding says it is “American Made,” it was made in an American prison.
On average, prisoners work 8 hours a day, but they have no union representation and make between .23 and $1.15 per hour, over 6 times less than federal minimum wage. These low wages combined with increasing communication and commissary costs mean that inmates are often released from correctional facilities with more debt than they had on their arrival. […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
I read in Harpers last year that, contrary to what you’d expect, the government has a huge financial interest in prisons that makes private prisons seem the minority part of the problem. From getting kickbacks on cell phones to more votes for a district to more funding there appears to be a huge incentive for the government to keep locking people up. Any thoughts on this Stephan?