Folks tend to point out the positive aspects of their communities. That's natural. There's warts, too.
It is in that light...
LAKE PROVIDENCE, La. -- At barbecues, ballgames and funerals, cotton gins, service stations, the First Baptist Church, the pepper-sauce factory and the local private school -- the men in orange are everywhere.
Many people here in East Carroll Parish, as Louisiana counties are known, say they could not get by without their inmates, who make up more than 10 percent of its population and most of its labor force. They are dirt-cheap, sometimes free, always compliant, ever-ready and disposable.
You just call up the sheriff, and presto, inmates are headed your way. "They bring me warm bodies, 10 warm bodies in the morning," said Grady Brown, owner of the Panola Pepper Corporation. "They do anything you ask them to do."
...The factory owner sings [an inmate's] praises, calling him reliable, trustworthy, honest. The inmate, Roy Hebert -- he says he is in for forgery -- beams. "Mr. Brown, he takes care of me," Mr. Hebert said.
The NYTimes is running an article today, front-paged on it's website - it's called
With Jobs To Do, Louisiana Parish Turns To Inmates.
National prison experts say that only Louisiana allows citizens to use inmate labor on such a widespread scale, under the supervision of local sheriffs. The state has the nation's highest incarceration rate, and East Carroll Parish, a forlorn jurisdiction of 8,700 people along the Mississippi River in the remote northeastern corner of Louisiana, has one of the highest rates in the state.
As a result, it is here that the nation's culture of incarceration achieves a kind of ultimate synthesis with the local economy. The prison system converts a substantial segment of the population into a commodity that is in desperately short supply -- cheap labor -- and local-jail inmates are integrated into every aspect of economic and social life.
I should point out here, that East Carroll Parish is in the north of the state, and was not effected by Hurricane Katrina. The inmates are not cleaning-up or rebuilding hurricane damage. The inmates are being used for everyday jobs in the small towns of a rural parish.
Sometimes the men get paid -- minimum wage, for instance, working for Mr. Brown. But by the time the sheriff takes his cut, which includes board, travel expenses and clothes, they wind up with considerably less than half of that, inmates say.
The rules are loose and give the sheriffs broad discretion...
I should point out here, that I know a bit about East Carroll Parish. It's not really "my community", tho' I've been there a few times. I've met some of the people mentioned in the article, tho' it's been a long time since and all.
I dunno Grady Brown, the hot-sauce factory owner mentioned in the article and the excerpt above. 'Least, I don't recall ever meeting him. I dunno if Grady Brown really does take care of the inmates who work for him. I dunno if he asks them to do things, or if he tells them to do things.
I do know that that the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world. And I do know that the use of inmate labor is something that is widespread in the US.
Work-as-rehabilitation could be a good thing. Still, I do know that the use of inmate labor is prone to misuse, open to abuse.
I recommend the article.