Locking Down an American Workforce: Prison Labor as the Past and Future of American “Free-Market” Capitalism
Sweatshop labor is back with a vengeance. It can be found across broad stretches of the American economy and around the world. Penitentiaries have become a niche market for such work. The privatization of prisons in recent years has meant the creation of a small army of workers too coerced and right-less to complain. Prisoners, whose ranks increasingly consist of those for whom the legitimate economy has found no use, now make up a virtual brigade within the reserve army of the unemployed whose ranks have ballooned along with the U.S. incarceration rate. The Corrections Corporation of America and G4S (formerly Wackenhut), two prison privatizers, sell inmate labor at subminimum wages to Fortune 500 corporations like Chevron, Bank of America, AT&T, and IBM.
These companies can, in most states, lease factories in prisons or prisoners to work on the outside. All told, nearly a million prisoners are now making office furniture, working in call centers, fabricating body armor, taking hotel reservations, working in slaughterhouses, or manufacturing textiles, shoes, and clothing, while getting paid somewhere between 93 cents and $4.73 per day.
Rarely can you find workers so pliable, easy to control, stripped of political rights, and subject to martial discipline at the first sign of recalcitrance -- unless, that is, you traveled back to the nineteenth century when convict labor was commonplace nationwide. Indeed, a sentence of “confinement at hard labor” was then the essence of the American penal system. More than that, it was one vital way the United States became a modern industrial capitalist economy -- at a moment, eerily like our own, when the mechanisms of capital accumulation were in crisis.
Year slavery and involuntary servitude abolished by the 13th Amendment except as punishment for crime: 1865 Year the Virginia Supreme Court declared that prisoners were "slaves of the state": 1871 Year the Universal Declaration of Human Rights passed the United Nations, giving "[e]veryone ... the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests": 1948 Year the Supreme Court upheld a North Carolina warden's ban on prisoners forming a labor union: 1977 Number of prison and jail industries in 1998: 2,500 Minimum estimate of annual value of prison and jail industrial output: $2 billion
Prison labor in the federal prisons
Percent of able-bodied sentenced federal prisoners required to work in the prison: 100% Number of prisoner workers in UNICOR, the federal prison industries: 22,560 Pay scale for federal prisoners who work outside of UNICOR in prison maintenance, in dollars per hour: $0.12-$0.40 Minimum wage in Haiti in dollars per hour: $0.30 Percent of federal prisoner-workers who work for UNICOR rather than in prison maintenance: 25% Minimum UNICOR wage, in dollars per hour: $0.23 Maximum UNICOR wage, in dollars per hour: $1.15 Number of prisons where UNICOR makes office furniture: 18 Average hourly earnings of a non-prisoner U.S. worker making office furniture: $13.04 Number of prisons where UNICOR makes clothing and textiles: 22 Average hourly earnings of a non-prisoner U.S. worker in a textile mill: $10.95 UNICOR 2001 sales: $583.5 million Amount purchased from UNICOR in 2001 by the Department of Defense: $388 million Amount purchased from UNICOR in 2001 by the U.S. Postal Service: $21 million Number of prisoners UNICOR projects will be in federal prisons in 2009: 211,516 Number of prisoner-workers UNCOR plans on hiring in 2009: 31,826 Percent of industrial orders delivered late, industry-wide: 6% Percent of UNICOR orders delivered late: 42% Percent failure rate of wire sold by UNICOR to the military compared to the military's next-worst supplier: 200%
Prison labor in the states
Minimum wage in the United States, in dollars per hour: $5.15 Average hourly rate paid at a prison camp in Nevada: $0.13 Maximum wage paid to prisoner workers in dollars per day in Georgia and Texas: $0 Most prisons that pay prisoners for work have a range of pay depending on the job. Average of the minimum wages for prisoners paid by the states, in dollars per day for non-industry work: $0.93 Average of the maximum wages paid to prisoners by the states, in dollars per day: $4.73 Lowest wage reported, in dollars per day, for prisoners working in private industry: $0.16
Tens of thousands of US inmates are paid from pennies to minimum wage—minus fines and victim compensation—for everything from grunt work to firefighting to specialized labor. Here's a sampling of what they make, and for whom.
Eating in: Each month, California inmates process more than 680,000 pounds of beef, 400,000 pounds of chicken products, 450,000 gallons of milk, 280,000 loaves of bread, and 2.9 million eggs (from 160,000 inmate-raised hens). Starbucks subcontractor Signature Packaging Solutions has hired Washington prisoners to package holiday coffees (as well as Nintendo Game Boys). Confronted by a reporter in 2001, a Starbucks rep called the setup "entirely consistent with our mission statement."
Around the Big House: Texas inmates produce brooms and brushes, bedding and mattresses, toilets, sinks, showers, and bullwhips. Bullwhips?
Windows dressing: In the mid-1990s, Washington prisoners shrink-wrapped software and up to 20,000 Microsoft mouses for subcontractor Exmark (other reported clients: Costco and JanSport). "We don't see this as a negative," a Microsoft spokesman said at the time. Dell used federal prisoners for PC recycling in 2003, but stopped after a watchdog group warned that it might expose inmates to toxins.
Back to school: Texas and California inmates make dorm furniture and lockers, diploma covers, binders, logbooks, library book carts, locker room benches, and juice boxes.
Patriotic duties: Federal Prison Industries, a.k.a. Unicor, says that in addition to soldiers' uniforms, bedding, shoes, helmets, and flak vests, inmates have "produced missile cables (including those used on the Patriot missiles during the Gulf War)" and "wiring harnesses for jets and tanks." In 1997, according to Prison Legal News, Boeing subcontractor MicroJet had prisoners cutting airplane components, paying $7 an hour for work that paid union wages of $30 on the outside.
The law won: In Texas, prisoners make officers' duty belts, handcuff cases, and prison-cell accessories. California convicts make gun containers, creepers (to peek under vehicles), and human-silhouette targets.
A stitch in time: California inmates sew their own garb. In the 1990s, subcontractor Third Generation hired 35 female South Carolina inmates to sew lingerie and leisure wear for Victoria's Secret and JCPenney. In 1997, a California prison put two men in solitary for telling journalists they were ordered to replace "Made in Honduras" labels on garments with "Made in the USA."
Open wide: At California's prison dental laboratory, inmates produce a complete prosthesis selection, including custom trays, try-ins, bite blocks, and dentures.
Constructive criticism: Prisoners in for burglary, battery, drug and gun charges, and escape helped build a Wal-Mart distribution center in Wisconsin in 2005, until community uproar halted the program. (Company policy says, "Forced or prison labor will not be tolerated by Wal-Mart.")
On call: Its inmate call centers are the "best kept secret in outsourcing," Unicor boasts. In 1994, a contractor for GOP congressional hopeful Jack Metcalf hired Washington state prisoners to call and remind voters he was pro-death penalty. Metcalf, who prevailed, said he never knew.
How US prison labour pads corporate profits at taxpayers' expense
In 1979, Congress created the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (known as PIE; pdf) to establish employment opportunities for inmates "that approximate private sector work opportunities". On the surface, the program is a great idea. It gives prisoners something to do, allows them to contribute to their own upkeep and, hopefully, gives them a better shot of getting an actual living wage job upon release. Such was the intention, anyway.
Unfortunately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, this is not how the PIE program has worked out. Instead, it has become little more than a tidy profit-making scheme for corporations and other entities willing to exploit the captive labor force – often at the expense of private sector jobs.
The worst abuses of the PIE program occur in the agricultural sector, particularly in states where draconian immigration laws have led to labor shortages that have left crops rotting in fields. Rather than have to pay real-world wages, farmers turned to lawmakers to help, who, in turn, were only too happy to offer up their prisoners as a cheap alternative. In Arizona, for instance, a state law requires that all able-bodied inmates must work. Prisoners who do jobs within the institution can expect to be paid between 10 cents and 50 cents an hour, but those lucky enough to get a job working for one of Arizona's Department of Corrections (ADC)'s private partners can expect to be paid a whopping fee of "more than 50 cents an hour".
Not exactly what you would call an "employment opportunity that approximates private sector work opportunities". And the prisoners assigned these jobs do not count themselves as lucky.
In a recent expose by Truthout, a female prisoner at Arizona's state prison Perryville unit described her day working as a laborer for a private company called Martori Farms.
"They wake us up between 2.30 and 3am and kick us out of our housing unit by 3.30am. We get fed at 4am. Our work supervisors show up between 5am and 8am. Then it's an hour to a one-and-a-half-hour drive to the job site. Then we work eight hours, regardless of conditions … We work in the fields hoeing weeds and thinning plants …
"Currently, we are forced to work in the blazing sun for eight hours. We run out of water several times a day. We ran out of sunscreen several times a week. They don't check medical backgrounds or ages before they pull women for these jobs. Many of us cannot do it! If we stop working and sit on the bus or even just take an unauthorized break, we get a major ticket which takes away our 'good time'."
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
WOW! Box can count to 4. Oh yeah...I forgot, the military marching cadence goes up to 4.
Hup 2-3-4...Hup 2-3-4...Hup 2-3-4...
LOL!
LMAO @ "HUP"!!! He has no idea, yet he continues to post on issues he knows nothing about.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
LMAO @ "HUP"!!! He has no idea, yet he continues to post on issues he knows nothing about.
Marching in cadence isn't anything I want to consider myself an expert at. Thanks for pointing out my lack of knowledge in the area of group think and obeying order and repetitive chanting.
You're right box, I did a little research, they don't only teach how to count to 4, they also teach left from right. LMAO!!
Kinda makes you "HUP" post sound pretty dumb huh Cic.
Why not post on issues that you know about... something you have some experience in... Like complaining, or like drones or your list of Al Qaeda best friends.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Corcraft is the marketplace name for the New York State Department of Correctional Services, Division of Industries.We are a full-fledged division of a state agency that operates as a program, but models finances and operations like a business. All revenues are returned to the General Fund of New York State. Corcraft's mission is to employ inmates in real work situations producing quality goods and services at competitive prices, delivered on time as required by the State of New York and its subsidiaries at no cost to the taxpayer.
Corcraft supports the overall Department of Correctional Services mission four ways: 1. Keeps inmates employed to help prevent disruption 2. Helps offset the cost of incarceration 3. Teaches work disciplines and job skills 4. Helps address taxpayer expectations that inmates do something productive while incarcerated. Who are our customers and how do we sell.
By law, Corcraft can only sell to government agencies (including other states) at the state and local levels; schools and universities, courts and police departments, and certain nonprofits.
Corcraft is designated a "preferred source" by New York State Law. Section 162 of the State Finance Law confers "preferred status" upon commodities produced by the Department of Correctional Services, Correctional Industries Program (Corcraft), thereby exempting purchases from Corcraft from the competitive procurement provisions of Section 163 of this article and from other competitive procurement statues. Customers can buy directly from Corcraft without having to go through a time-consuming bid process. Where do we manufacture?
Corcaft shops are located in 17 correctional facilities throughout NYS.
Corcraft is the marketplace name for the New York State Department of Correctional Services, Division of Industries.We are a full-fledged division of a state agency that operates as a program, but models finances and operations like a business. All revenues are returned to the General Fund of New York State. Corcraft's mission is to employ inmates in real work situations producing quality goods and services at competitive prices, delivered on time as required by the State of New York and its subsidiaries at no cost to the taxpayer.
Corcraft supports the overall Department of Correctional Services mission four ways: 1. Keeps inmates employed to help prevent disruption 2. Helps offset the cost of incarceration 3. Teaches work disciplines and job skills 4. Helps address taxpayer expectations that inmates do something productive while incarcerated. Who are our customers and how do we sell.
By law, Corcraft can only sell to government agencies (including other states) at the state and local levels; schools and universities, courts and police departments, and certain nonprofits.
Corcraft is designated a "preferred source" by New York State Law. Section 162 of the State Finance Law confers "preferred status" upon commodities produced by the Department of Correctional Services, Correctional Industries Program (Corcraft), thereby exempting purchases from Corcraft from the competitive procurement provisions of Section 163 of this article and from other competitive procurement statues. Customers can buy directly from Corcraft without having to go through a time-consuming bid process. Where do we manufacture?
Corcaft shops are located in 17 correctional facilities throughout NYS.
Highway and silk-screened signs and graphics; mattresses, pillows, bulletin and white boards, dustpans
Elmira
Offset printing, aluminum foundry products
Fishkill Specialty metal fabrication; inmate mess hall tables, Omega computer tables
Great Meadow & Washington
Classroom furniture, audience and side seating, janitorial products
Green Haven
Laminate furniture, ergonomic seating, Excelsior office systems
Mid Orange
Modular buildings, police barriers
And American thought slavery was abolished. No, it was only abolished for privatization, government slavery is still completely legal, and they create more and more laws, for more and more slaves of the state.
I wonder if Cicero was turned down by the Marines? He seems to have an extreme resentment and anger at a group he knows very little about. I advised Cic to speak with his dad about the military, so he won't sound so.... so uninformed, when he posts. Is it rejection that created this pent up hostility towards anything military? Really Cic... you should talk to someone about your problem before it gets worse.
"Hup 2 3 4"... LMAO not even close huh Cic. Thanks for the cadence video.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
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