To: Austin Johnson
From: Will Brueckner
I do not know how to comment on other people’s comments on this website but this is a question that was brought up about my last blog post…
Q: I understand where you are coming from completely, but are we really able to compare this (prison labor) to slavery? Because I'm assuming that the underlined sentence in your blog was insinuating that it is a form of slavery. If this truly could be considered a form of slavery, why is it being continued? Or why is it that the government doesn't see it as that?
A: When we think of slavery we think of pre-civil war southern plantation owners whipping persons of African descent in the cotton fields. They were paid nothing, had a horrible standard of living and had no freedom whatsoever. So no we cannot compare prisoners in the private sector to that specific form of slavery. I looked up the modern definition of slavery and it is now considered to be “a civil relationship whereby one person has absolute power over another and controls his life, liberty, and fortune.” With this broader definition in mind, here is how this privatized prison system is a new form of slavery...
We all know that being in prison means that you are giving up your liberties as a free man or woman for your particular sentence. Your life and liberty is in the hands of the prison staff and this goes for both private and federal prisons. But what private prison corporations like the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) do with your fortune is the key in determining if they are enslaving inmates or not. A state or federal prison is required to pay their inmates minimum wage when they perform manual labor like manufacturing park benches, picnic tables, lingerie, or traffic signs. The CCA on the other hand has their inmates do manual labor for 17-25 cents/hr for a 6 hour work day and 50 cents for “highly skilled positions”. Everywhere else in the nation, a legal business and government-operated prison has to pay their workers minimum wage while the CCA gives their inmates a paycheck of no more than $200 a month. This means that nobody can compete with the costs of private prison labor in the US. Just like it was cheaper to buy cotton from the south than from Europe in colonial times it is cheaper to buy anything produced by CCA owned prisoners. This is why the government subcontracts all the manufacturing of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bulletproof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens to privatized correctional facilities. There have been other incidents of businesses firing employees at factories and replacing them with prison labor because it is so much cheaper.
Say you need 500,000 teddy bears in the next 2 months. Build-a-Bear Workshop sends you a contract saying they can do that for $2 million based on covering their overhead costs plus a 10% mark up to turn a profit. The overhead costs would be the necessary resources (cloth, fluff, plastic, etc), shipping and labor. The CCA sends you a contract saying they can complete the task for $1.5 million. Any good businessman or woman is going to take the CCA’s proposal for obvious reasons. In reality it would take the CCA no more than $750,000 to do this in 2 months because they have a workforce of 100,000 that is paid 3 cents to the dollar while working in chains. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems. Moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells. What ends up happening in this situation is that the CCA turns a ridiculous profit for its high-ranking executives and shareholders while cutting out legitimate businesses. And how do they bring in all this revenue? The answer: by exploiting prisoners and executing absolute power over their life, liberty, and fortune. That, my friend, is slavery today.
Stay tuned for the answers to why it is still being continued and why the government turns a blind eye!
From: Will Brueckner
I do not know how to comment on other people’s comments on this website but this is a question that was brought up about my last blog post…
Q: I understand where you are coming from completely, but are we really able to compare this (prison labor) to slavery? Because I'm assuming that the underlined sentence in your blog was insinuating that it is a form of slavery. If this truly could be considered a form of slavery, why is it being continued? Or why is it that the government doesn't see it as that?
A: When we think of slavery we think of pre-civil war southern plantation owners whipping persons of African descent in the cotton fields. They were paid nothing, had a horrible standard of living and had no freedom whatsoever. So no we cannot compare prisoners in the private sector to that specific form of slavery. I looked up the modern definition of slavery and it is now considered to be “a civil relationship whereby one person has absolute power over another and controls his life, liberty, and fortune.” With this broader definition in mind, here is how this privatized prison system is a new form of slavery...
We all know that being in prison means that you are giving up your liberties as a free man or woman for your particular sentence. Your life and liberty is in the hands of the prison staff and this goes for both private and federal prisons. But what private prison corporations like the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) do with your fortune is the key in determining if they are enslaving inmates or not. A state or federal prison is required to pay their inmates minimum wage when they perform manual labor like manufacturing park benches, picnic tables, lingerie, or traffic signs. The CCA on the other hand has their inmates do manual labor for 17-25 cents/hr for a 6 hour work day and 50 cents for “highly skilled positions”. Everywhere else in the nation, a legal business and government-operated prison has to pay their workers minimum wage while the CCA gives their inmates a paycheck of no more than $200 a month. This means that nobody can compete with the costs of private prison labor in the US. Just like it was cheaper to buy cotton from the south than from Europe in colonial times it is cheaper to buy anything produced by CCA owned prisoners. This is why the government subcontracts all the manufacturing of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bulletproof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens to privatized correctional facilities. There have been other incidents of businesses firing employees at factories and replacing them with prison labor because it is so much cheaper.
Say you need 500,000 teddy bears in the next 2 months. Build-a-Bear Workshop sends you a contract saying they can do that for $2 million based on covering their overhead costs plus a 10% mark up to turn a profit. The overhead costs would be the necessary resources (cloth, fluff, plastic, etc), shipping and labor. The CCA sends you a contract saying they can complete the task for $1.5 million. Any good businessman or woman is going to take the CCA’s proposal for obvious reasons. In reality it would take the CCA no more than $750,000 to do this in 2 months because they have a workforce of 100,000 that is paid 3 cents to the dollar while working in chains. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems. Moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells. What ends up happening in this situation is that the CCA turns a ridiculous profit for its high-ranking executives and shareholders while cutting out legitimate businesses. And how do they bring in all this revenue? The answer: by exploiting prisoners and executing absolute power over their life, liberty, and fortune. That, my friend, is slavery today.
Stay tuned for the answers to why it is still being continued and why the government turns a blind eye!