Prison labor has truly become the 21st Century version of slavery. Our prisons are full of people of color (60% of those in State and 81% of those in Federal prisons for drug violations are Black). There are more black men in US prisons today than there were slaves in 1840 and they are used for the same purpose, to make a great deal of money for those in power. But instead of working for Plantations they are working for Corporations. At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations who mount their operations inside state prisons. Corporations could not be happier. They only have to pay prisoners at most $6 per hour, with no weekends, paid vacations, holidays or overtime. And they don’t have to pay healthcare for prisoners, that is picked up by our taxes. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: Whole Foods, Victoria’s Secret, JC Penney, IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, Nordstroms, Revlon, Macys, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more. According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison industry produces 100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 17:24:39 +0000