CIVIL LIBERTIES
23 Cents an Hour? The
Perfectly Legal Slavery Happening in Modern-Day America
The government and corporations have a pool of powerless,
exploitable workers in skyrocketing prison populations.
By Terrell Jermaine Starr / AlterNet July 1, 2015
Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
If you thought slavery was outlawed in America, you would be
wrong. The 13th amendment to the Constitution states that "neither slavery
nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party
shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any
place subject to their jurisdiction."
In plain language, that means slavery in America can still
exist for those who are in prison, where you basically lose all of your
rights. (You don’t gain a lot of your
rights back when you get out of prison, either, but that is a different story.)
So, given the country’s penchant for rapacious capitalism, it may not come as a
surprise that there is much of the American prison system that exploits
American prisoners much like slaves.
In fact there is large-scale exploitation in American
prisons benefiting American corporations and the military-industrial complex.
UNICOR, better known as Federal Prison Industries, or FPI, is a
government-owned corporation that employs inmates for as little as 23 cents per
hour, to provide a wide range of products and services under the guise of a
“jobs training program.” In theory, this is supposed to give inmates skills
that will prepare them for the workforce upon release.
Critics of FPI have long claimed it exploits prisoners who
don’t have the right to organize for representation to protect their rights and
it unfairly competes with small businesses that can’t provide goods and
services for the average pay of 92 cents an hour FPI workers make. The program
employs around 13,000 prisoners per year. In 2013, it reported gross revenue of
$609.7 million.
According to FPI’s website, inmates employed in the program
carry out a wide range of services that include making house and office
furniture, mattresses, flags, traffic signs and military items. These items are
usually made for other federal agencies, but private companies can contract
workers through FPI as well.
It is no surprise that the inmate/slave labor force has
grown along with mass incarceration in America. The Prison Policy Initiative
counts 2.3 million people in prison, according to the 2010 census, by far the
highest rate of incarceration in the developed world.
Many more are ensnared in the criminal justice system’s
other branches. At the end of 2013, nearly 5 million adults were either on
probation or parole, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics. All of these
populations and even those not even convicted of a crime are vulnerable to
exploitative fees and byzantine rules seemingly designed to catch people and
get them back into the grips of the prison system. Basically, there is a trifecta
of exploitation in the American criminal justice system. As reported on
AlterNet, the bail system in America keeps many people in jail in a massive
form of pretrial detention one has to buy one's way out of. And police
departments are increasingly funding themselves by charging poor people
exorbitant fees for minor infractions.
In terms of prison labor, one of its controversial services
is the production of solar panels. Reuters reports that Suniva Inc, a
Georgia-based solar cell and panel maker, uses prison labor for 10 percent of
its manufacturing needs to keep its costs low so it can, in part, keep up with
producers from China. The company is also backed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Over the last 18 months, Suniva moved all of its solar panel
assembly to the United States from Asia. Suniva’s deal with FPI helps it to
avoid U.S. government tariffs on Chinese-made panels and capture lucrative
government contracts. Roughly 200 inmates make solar panels in factories at
prisons in Sheridan, Oregon and Otisville, New York, according to Reuters.
Solar panels made in America are more efficient in
generating electricity from the sun, allowing companies like Suniva to sell
them at premium rates. As for the inmates, Suniva’s vice president of global
sales and manufacturing Mike Card says he doesn’t know how much they are paid.
Manufacturing solar panels is actually a good skill to have,
but according to Alex Friedman, managing editor of Prison Legal News, FPI has
no job placement program for inmates once they are released.
“You can have lots of skills, but it doesn’t necessarily
mean you’re going to get a good job when you get out,” Friedman told AlterNet.
“You can be really skilled at whatever it is, diesel engines even, but you also
have a felony record. You’re getting out from prison after five or two years or
whatever it is and starting from scratch.”
Another field where FPI inmates are providing labor is
through military contracts. In 2013, federal inmates stitched more than $100
million worth of military uniforms for the Department of Defense, according to
the New York Times. The federal inmates who make these garments earn no more
than $2 per hour, something that puts competing small businesses that have to
pay at least minimum wage at a major disadvantage.
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