Whitewing424 t1_iyaqhz3 wrote
Reply to comment by Senyu in Forced Uyghur labor is being used in China's solar panel supply chain, researchers say by chrisdh79
Prisoners make everything man. In texas alone (the largest unpaid prison labor program among the states), prisoners make soap, food products, perform animal husbandry, clothing, and are thus involved in every industry that relies on such products. California uses prisoners as firefighters (30 to 40% of CA firefighters are prisoners) and they are paid around $2 an hour (good luck finding any supply companies in CA that aren't reliant on such prison labor to not burn down). In Mississippi, prisoners are used to clear land for agriculture and the majority of farmland there was built by the hands of prisoners. Federal prisoners making less than $1 an hour make tons of things, ranging from furniture to a tremendous amount of military equipment our soldiers use. In Georgia, prisoners perform a lot of the sanitization work, and work on landfills, recycling, and even upkeeping golf courses (yes, for private clubs). These make up to $3 a day, while totally unpaid prisoners clean the streets, perform transporation work, and janitorial duties.
All around the country, prisoners are rented out to 3rd party companies for labor purposes. Major corporations like AT&T contract much of their work out to 3rd party companies that do this work, and those third party companies use unpaid (or extremely poorly paid) prison labor to win the lowest bidder contracts. Every state uses prison labor for a variety of work (much of which is either unpaid or vastly underpaid).
Things many businesses rely on, like food, food trays for the cafeteria, signs, call center work, paper products (like calendars) and far more are made by prisoners. Hell, even the railroads were originally built via convict leasing, and many of the biggest offenders are still around today as huge corporations after getting rich off of it (Like United States Steel Corporation).
Our entire country depends heavily on prison slave labor. There is a reason the US has the largest prison population on the planet (both in relative and absolute terms). We have 4% of the world's population, and 22% of the world's prison population. It encourages lawmakers to make unfair laws and law enforcment to go out of their way to find offenders to keep the prisons full.
mynamejulian t1_iyb3vdf wrote
CA firefighters are what surprise me. Seems like there would be plenty of opportunities to escape if you wanted to
Whitewing424 t1_iybsmwk wrote
Only lower security prisoners are used as firefighters, and there is still a substantial amount of supervision involved. CA has a lot of wildfires and needs a lot of firefighters. It's a dangerous job and few are willing to do it, while the pay isn't that great for such a risky job. So they've got two choices: use prisoners for close to free labor, or pay firefighters more to attract more hires. I'm sure there's the occasional escape. Here's a news story about one in 2021: https://lawandcrime.com/crime/california-prisoner-steals-fire-engine-tries-to-escape-custody-while-fighting-wildfire-video/
They went with the cheaper, vastly more unethical option.
Itchy_Focus_4500 t1_iybbmke wrote
Seems like they are being punished, or something.
[deleted] t1_iybrtwf wrote
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Itchy_Focus_4500 t1_iybspmz wrote
Didn’t say that. Do not try and put your words into my mouth. If you’re a convicted criminal, in the USA, working while incarcerated is a privilege. For which they volunteer. It’s that or simply sit your ass in the cell block, no commissary money earned. Try and find other ways to pay for your soap, toothbrush, toothpaste or anything else. Unless you have something keeping your commissary account full of money, you work. Remember, it’s the Criminal who put the Criminal in prison. Some places require the Criminal to work, in order to pay for SOMETHING- food, guards etc.
Don’t do the Crime, if you can’t do the time.
Whitewing424 t1_iybtav2 wrote
So you did say that then, it's their fault they're put in a situation where poorly paid or unpaid labor is the best thing they've got going, and have little to no choice but to work. Nevermind that laws are frequently improperly enforced, and are often even written specifically to keep the prisons full (instead of making society safer or healthier).
Claiming you didn't suggest something and then doubling down on it is an odd strategy.
And are you suggesting that there are no innocents falsely convicted as well?
The prison system in the US is a textbook example of a perverse incentive.
Itchy_Focus_4500 t1_iybuslv wrote
Again, I never said anything like that Criminals, committed crimes.
They pay. That’s what I said.
[deleted] t1_iyc7h5e wrote
Or ya know criminals could just serve their time or be rehabilitated and NOT be used as slaves for free/overwhelmingly cheap labor. Just a thought
ImNotTheGrimReaper t1_iyd5xqv wrote
Agreed. If you commit a crime no matter how big or small then you deserve to be a slave.
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