This is about slave labor.
Something that was supposed to have disappeared in this country in 1867 with the ratification of the 13th amendment. In Alabama and Texas, it persisted more than a little longer. In Louisiana, as late as 2006, any publicity it might have gotten was being unfortunately overshadowed by Katrina.
Douglas Blackmon's "Slavery by another Name"
(basically kidnapping black men on false charges
so that they could be sentenced to long terms of
hard labor, for nothing) is reviewed here:
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/...
During the early 1900s, this free labor was an important
part of the Dixie labor pool in general and that plenty
of successful white corporations owned by powerful
men in various southern states owed their profitability
to this systematic exploitation. But YOU, of course, don't
owe any reparations because of this.
The practice of renting inmates from county jails to perform
low-skilled service jobs (with kickbacks to the sheriff) is
unfortunately alive and well in Louisiana a century later, in the early 2000's:
http://www.commondreams.org/...