American Slavery

 When I was in prison, I was given a job. I had several jobs, actually, during my time at Fort Dix FCI. I ended my time in Landscaping. As I recall it now, my pay was about $30.00 a month. The East Compound had an Unicor operation for most of the time I was in federal prison. More about Unicor, in a few minutes.

You might not realize that your state and federal governments run slave labor operations. I suggest you read ‘Slavery by any name is wrong’: the push to end forced labor in prisons published by The Guardian. But since you might not be keen to follow that link, let me give you a few quotes:

 

When prison reformer Johnny Perez was incarcerated he made sheets, underwear and pillowcases working for Corcraft, a manufacturing division of New York State Correctional Services that uses prisoners to manufacture products for state and local agencies. His pay ranged between 17 cents and 36 cents an hour.

“We have a system that forces people to work and not only forces them to work but does not give them an adequate living wage,” said Perez. “Slavery by any name is wrong. Slavery in any shape or form is wrong.”

Perez is now part of a nationwide movement that hopes to reform what some have called the “slavery loophole” that allows incarcerated people to be paid tiny sums for jobs that – if they refuse to do them – can have dire consequences.

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A report published by the American Civil Liberties Union in June 2022 found about 800,000 prisoners out of the 1.2 million in state and federal prisons are forced to work, generating a conservative estimate of $11bn annually in goods and services while average wages range from 13 cents to 52 cents per hour. Five states – Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas – force prisoners to work without pay. The report concluded that the labor conditions of US prisoners violate fundamental human rights to life and dignity.

A campaign to amend the constitution at the federal level and end the exception of the 13th amendment is being promoted by the US representative Nikema Williams and the senator Jeff Merkley. The bill has 175 co-sponsors in the House, 170 Democrats and 5 Republicans, and 14 co-sponsors in the US Senate, but has yet to leave committee for a floor vote in either the House or Senate.

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It is time for change, said Johnny Perez. He emphasized that in prison, individuals aren’t provided adequate basic necessities such as food, toiletries, clothing and office supplies, and that the measly wages paid by these jobs don’t cover these extra expenses.

Refusing a work assignment can also have adverse consequences, he said, ranging from being placed in solitary confinement to having any work issues placed on your record which affects parole and status within a prison that determines what privileges you receive. Workers in prison do not get any paid time off and are often forced to work even when sick unless an infirmary affirms they are not able to work.

What the article does not say is the work does give job skills useable outside of prison so the  convicted can obtain lawful employment. Most of the jobs at Fort Dix were make work jobs, and unlike the article, one could be put on a roster, not show up, and get the minimum pay of $5 a month without getting into trouble. Let me use Landscaping as an example, we had five shovels when our roster was, at least, 4 times that large. The bureaucrats could show inmates working when no actual labor was performed.

One popular job was in the kitchen. The reason for this popularity was that the kitchen staff could get as much from stealing fresh food at one meal as they would earn in a month.

As for Unicor, please give a look at their web page. When Unicor was on the East Compound, they employed prisoners in breaking up computers. I am not sure if this is a marketable skill outside of prison. I do know that the workers stole USB memory sticks, and I did know of one tablet floated through my unit building. My unit building appreciated the USB thingies because when coupled with the contraband cell phone, we wound up watching all sorts of programs from Netflix and HBO and Showtime and Starz, and bootlegged movies, on the prison provided televisions. Those televisions having a USB port. Your tax dollars at work.

This needs to be changed. Give inmates work that makes them marketable outside of prison, or increase the pay, or both; but treating us like salves really does need to stop.

sch 9/29/2022