The labor of people inside prisons has been exploited throughout the pandemic to manufacture all sorts of goods needed for relief. While people inside are basically paid nothing, one situation shows the high risks of what’s been called a “slave factory.”
In California, prisons stopped religious, rehabilitation, and educational services to halt the pandemic’s spread – but prison factories kept going! The Los Angeles Times reports that pay ranged from “8 cents to $1 an hour,” while products they made like masks, furniture and sanitizer sold for millions!
There were also threats.
Some got sick, but they were threatened with discipline that would mess with their chances of release if they refused to work for their own safety! One requirement is thousands of masks PER DAY.
It was a Black woman inside who called it a “slave factory.” And she had more to say, too.
“The more you give them, the more they want,” Robbie Hall said. It’s not a stretch to compare being forced to work for virtually nothing under threat of discipline to slavery. This isn’t about rehabilitation, this is about exploiting labor for profit, and we must end it!
People being abused for profits is the true nature of a systemic prison problem that’s directly linked to slavery. These are people with families, hopes, and dreams. Their lives should matter enough for us to reject prison slavery every time we see it.