American prison labor camps

1.6 million Americans serving time in prison have full-time jobs but aren't counted in standard labor surveys. These 870,000 working inmates, roughly the same number of workers as in the states of Vermont and Rhode Island combined.

'Prison slavery' in America

Prisons can force inmates to work for little or no wage per the  13th Amendment . Once you’ve been convicted of a crime, you are in essence a  slave of the state .

Private prisons, corporations profiting from cheap prison labor and some politicians benefit at the expense of the poor. Lets follow the money to see how American ' prison slavery ' works.

Sell prison labor

13th Ammendment

"There are over 870,000 inmates working full-time in American prisons. Their median wage in state and federal prisons is around 20 and 31 cents an hour, respectively. In Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas prisoners are forced to work for free.

Inmate workers are not considered "employees" under the law. No disability or worker's compensation in the event of an injury. No Social Security withholdings, sick time, or overtime pay." -  Prospect 

Racism

"Targeted mass incarceration policies and racial bias, have led to more  people of color  in prisons and jails." -  Talk Poverty 

Data Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2019, Table 10. (Graph: Alexi Jones, 2020)

Private prisons

Corrections Corporation of America (now CoreCivic) and GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut Corrections) run for-profit firms. They've expanded across America based on info from 10-K reports.

Click on this map for details on a facility and the State's policy on prison labor wages.  Wage details table .

GEO for profit prison in Mississippi

South Carolina pays about 35 cents/hour to prison laborers

Use prison labor

The American criminal justice system holds almost 2.3 million people in 1,833 state prisons, 110 federal prisons, 1,772 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,134 local jails, 218 immigration detention facilities, and 80 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories.

"America spends over $80 billion annually to incarcerate 2.2 million people in deplorable facilities. The social costs of our failing criminal legal system are carried largely by low-income and minority communities.

Private and public actors financially exploit our criminal legal system. They make money of each segment of our punishment system. They have created a legal form of human trafficking that targets the poor." -  Worth Rises 

When is slavery acceptable?

"Incarcerated persons or, more specifically, the “duly convicted,” lack a constitutional right to be free of forced servitude. Further, this forced labor is not checked by many of the protections enjoyed by workers laboring in the exact same jobs on the other side of the 20-foot barbed-wire electric fence." -  The Atlantic 

" Starbucks   holiday products , and  McDonald’s   uniforms  have all been made (or are still made) with low-wage prison labor. 40% of the firefighters battling California’s outbreak of forest fires are prison inmates  working for $2 an hour ." -  Talk Poverty 

"Tyson Foods uses labor from the Wilkes Correctional Center." -  Marshall Project 

" Fidelity Investments   is a funder of the   American Legislative Exchange Council   (ALEC)  which is deeply invested in supporting Corrections Corporation of American (CCA) and Geo Group (Geo)." -  Daily Kos 

Exploit prison labor

The  $80 billion-a-year American incarceration industry  has a vested interest in the fate of private prisons and donates heavily to politicians.

Geo Group and CoreCivic led spending on contributions and lobbying at $12.7 million and $7.9 million, respectively.

Prison service companies gave $395,599 to political parties, 76 percent of which went to the Republican Party." -  Follow The Money 

Private prison firms donate heavily to Republicans

Marco Rubio has a history of  close ties to GEO Group, the nation’s second-largest for-profit prison company. While Rubio was leading the Florida House of Representatives, GEO was awarded a state government contract for a $110 million prison. Over his career, Rubio has received nearly $40,000 in campaign donations from GEO, making him the Senate’s top career recipient of  contributions from the company .

Over his career, Rubio has received nearly $40,000 in campaign donations from GEO, making him the Senate’s top career recipient of contributions from the company.

The influence of private prisons creates a system that trades money for human freedom, often at the expense of the nation’s most vulnerable populations: children, immigrants and the poor."  Washington Post 

ALEC and Prison Labor

ALEC helped pioneer some of the toughest sentencing laws on the books today, like mandatory minimums for non-violent drug offenders, “three strikes” laws, and “truth in sentencing” laws. In 1995 alone, ALEC’s  Truth in Sentencing Act  was signed into law in twenty-five states.

"Prison labor is part of a “confluence of similar interests” among politicians and corporations.” said Alex Friedmann, associate editor of Prison Legal News.

As decades of model legislation reveals, ALEC has been at the center of this confluence." -  The Nation 

What can be done

"Prisons have no incentive to pay inmates. Unlike workers in the free market, who can decide where to work, inmates do not have a choice between employers.

Bring prison jobs under the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which sets minimum standards for wages and working conditions." -  Prospect 

Mass Incarceration in the US

Federal courts have  held  that prison laborers are not “employees” under the meaning of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which establishes wage and overtime pay standards.