Working on the “Chain-Gang” was how prisoners were punished for their crimes in days gone by– and people who had been victims of crime were happy.
Then we became “civilized” as a society and changed laws, regulations and opinions that eliminated these hard forms of punishment and degradation. Instead of harsh working conditions we made sentences longer, believing that to be more humane. Parole was abolished; possession of a “joint” was enough for a mandatory five years in prison.
Problem was, all this incarceration was costing taxpayers ever more in corrections costs. Lawmakers sought ways to reduce the ever-increasing expense of incarceration.
An idea was born: create prison industries where prisoners could be put to work to “earn their keep” and reduce the incarceration costs borne by taxpayers. Soon another idea was floated, let private manufacturers gain access to the prison run factories and further reduce the expense of housing, feeding and providing medical care to prisoners. Inmates can be taught work ethics, products made by them will cost us less and recidivism will be reduced…and once again the people were happy.
Problem is, this program has created more opportunity for crime and exploitation – of the prisoners themselves. Instead of prison populations shrinking, they grew. This growth was due to more laws, stiffer sentences, the war on drugs and increasing penalties. Alongside that population the prison industries grew even faster with more inmates came more job positions.
This labor force exists in a near vacuum; no voice, no representation, disallowed from unionizing (though today an estimated six hundred thousand to one million men and women are working in prison industries nationwide), sentenced to hard labor by courts. DOC’s assign them to jobs, and if they have existing skills needed, they are put to work in prison industries. Industry managers seek skilled inmates with long sentences in order to quicken production, maintain shipping schedules and dependability.
Court challenges under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) about wages and deductions are mostly denied with prejudice – meaning the plaintiff is prohibited from ever filing such claims in the future.
In Florida and Nevada (just two of nearly 40 states involved), percentages of what little wages earned are taken back and given to the prison industry to help expand or create new work programs. This aspect itself violates one of the key tenets of the federal prison industry program referred to as the “PIE Program” and there are other more critical violations resulting in our jobs being lost to prisoners.
This expose will bring to light the existence of a national network of individuals, corporations, a private association, agencies and branches of state and federal government involved in exploiting inmate labor, profiting off that exploitation and pursuing the transfer of tens of thousands of jobs from communities to prisons across the country. Nevada ranks high on the list of states involved in violating the trust of their citizen workers, small businesses and exploiting prisoners delivered into their care.
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