The Economics of Prison Slavery

"This multimillion- dollar industry has its own trade exhibitions, conventions, websites, and mail- order/Internet catalogs. It also has direct advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in a large variety of colors." ~ Left Business Observer

ThinkProgress.org

"Bad" Guys Making Your Goods

Many people when they think of prison labor envision a bunch inmates pressing license plates, or perhaps engaging in work similar to wood- shop class in high school. If you are one of these folks; think again. As many as 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations. From companies that sell wholesale heart attack processed foods to the American public, to the creme- de- la creme of big business like: IBM, Microsoft, Macy's, Wal- Mart, JC Penney, Boeing, Intel, Nordstrom's, Target, Nintendo, and even Victoria's Secret. So yeah, that bra and panty set you're wearing, or the one you just purchased for that special someone; there's a very good chance that satin and lace was sewn and packaged in a dangerous place.

In 1997 two California prisoners were put in solitary confinement for telling a journalist they had been ordered to replace "Made in Honduras" labels on garments with "Made in the USA."

Perhaps most surprising of all the goods produced by American prisoners are those made for the American military. Then again, maybe not so surprising; Military Industrial Complex, meet the Prison Industrial Complex. Oh what a happy union, the system that feeds itself. According to the Left Business Observer the federal prison industry produces: 100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens    

A great deal of these prisoners receive wages as little as .23 cents an hour, and some as much as up to $2 for an hours worth of work. In privately owned prisons wages paid to prisoners are, not surprisingly, the lowest. Keep in mind, a great deal of these incarcerated persons are NOT in jail for major offenses. The fact that private companies and even our own government benefit greatly from cheap prison labor only drives incentive to keep these slave workers in their factories. If you owned a business, (and maybe morality just isn't your cup of tea), who would you rather have working for you? The guy asking for a reasonable salary?, or the guy that will take whatever pennies you can throw at 'em because he really doesn't have much choice in the matter? The market for forced prison labor is akin to a true capitalists wet dream. Instead of these companies shipping their workload to third- world markets thus taking job opportunities away from your average American citizen, they have now devised a way to maintain harsh working conditions and slave wages in the US, while still taking job opportunities away from a country that is in desperate need of real economic growth. Despicable, and shameful.
Also, these prisoners aren't getting skills they can take with them out into the public sphere, (if released, and if not branded a felon), that would assist in obtaining gainful employment on the outside.

 

Lots of People Making $ Off the Ever- Expanding Prison System. Don't Worry, It's Nobody You or I Know

"We feel very, very good about the business prospects" ~ CCA Rep at the annual American Corrections Association, (ACA), convention

 In 1982 the state prison system budget was 9 Billion Dollars. As of 2009 the budget surpasses 60 Billion Dollars. Although crime rates have been dropping for well over a decade, The amount of money spent on prisons has increased almost 600%, (while money spent on education increased a mere 33%). With all this money being poured into an overcrowded, and seemingly unnecessary prison system; who's benefiting? "All of these things are terrible, but they are good for business", CompuDyne CEO Martin Roenigk was quoted in a CNN article entitled, "The Hard Cell." Roegnigk was blindly commenting on the rapid rise of incarceration rates, (not giving much thought to the fact that crime rates are down, yet the prison pop is up), and the subsequent need for companies like his who manufacture various "lock- down" security related equipment specifically for prisons. At the time the CNN article was published, the company was expecting an overall revenue of $140 million dollars up from the $20 million they started out with in the mid- 90's.
The annual American Corrections Association draws hundreds of vendors pitching everything from "finger- puppet tooth brushes, suicide resistant toilets, transport vehicles, and uniforms." By all accounts, these companies do not starve. 

Prison overcrowding is perhaps the worst in California. Corrections Corporation of America, as well as other private detention centers, happily take on any crop of inmates they can get from overcrowded state and federal facilities.

Making money off phone calls is also a very lucrative business for both service provider and prison. A $1 billion dollar market, inmates can rack up as much as a thousand dollars worth of phone calls in one month. Not difficult to imagine when caller rates are at least 4 times that of a phone call not from prison, and also the needs of inmates to communicate with family on the outside keep them spending. In CCA's largest detention center in Lumpkin, GA, a facility that pulls in between 35- to- 60 million dollars annually, inmates are charged $5 a minute for phone calls while only being payed $1 a day for their labor. 

Indeed, the slave economy is alive and well. Traditionally worked by blacks, American Latinos, those from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds. Now adding to the working plantations we have the influx of immigrants being caged by the powerful instead of nestled by that "mighty woman with a torch" who now hollowly cries- "Give Me Your Poor, Your Tired, Your Huddled Masses Yearning To Be FREE!"            

"Prison Labor Booms In US As Low- Cost Inmates Bring Billions", Uploaded by RT, YouTube
Fairly despicable display of reckless capitalism and human bondage as reported by Russia Today.



The Fiscal Conservative Argument Against Mass Incarceration; Still Maintaining Core "Tough on Crime" Principles, but With More Cost- Effective, Even Faith- Based Alternatives -
Read the recently published, "Conservative Case Against More Prisons"