Prisons must end slave labor

By Judge Greg Mathis
-Guest Columnist-
Black America Web | Last updated: Sep 4, 2006 - 2:39:00 PM

Graphic: MGN Online

Prisons depend on the income the inmates generate. Corporations that profit from the cheap labor lobby the government for longer sentences and tougher crime laws.

For years now, the American government has gone out of its way to show smaller, poorer countries just how wrong making people work for substandard wages, in poor conditions is.

Funny how we have failed to practice what we preach.

America has got it’s own dirty secret, a secret that is netting big returns for both the government and corporate America: Prison labor. In jails and prisons across this country, men and women are producing military equipment, assembling office furniture, providing telephone customer service, raising seeing-eye dogs and more.

Much of this work is done for minimum wage - with the state taking a substantial cut off the top – and some of it is even done for free.

The prisoners aren’t in a position to complain about the work they’re assigned; after all, this isn’t about them or their needs – this is about making a profit, cheaply. So was slavery. Now, though, the plantation is the prison industrial complex and the masters are the American government and the corporations that line its pockets.

The New York Times recently ran a piece about Louisiana’s use of prisoners for just about every available labor need in the state. But Louisiana isn’t alone. States across this country use prison labor, in varying degrees. Prison labor has its roots in slavery. After slavery was abolished, southern states still needed a cheap workforce, so states began hiring out prisoners. Newly free blacks would be arrested and charged for ridiculous crimes, like not meeting sharecropping commitments. Once in the system, they were hired out to plantations, railroads and mines.

In the post-slavery South, nearly 90 percent of the prisoners hired out for work were black. The modern picture isn’t much different. African-Americans are a small percentage of the U.S. population, just under14 percent, yet we make up over half of the jail and prison population.

Hispanics aren’t doing much better: low population numbers, high incarceration numbers. And it’s these black and brown men and women who are being contracted out, like property, to the highest bidder.

The U.S. has more people in jail than any other nation- nearly two million people call an American jail or prison home. It’s important to remember that nearly one million of these prisoners are incarcerated for nonviolent offenses. And, though study after study shows that upping incarceration rates doesn’t rehabilitate these types of offenders, it’s the model our country goes back to time and time again.

Knowing this, it’s not a stretch to assume that the growing business of selling inmates is an incentive for local governments to lock folks up. Prisons depend on the income the inmates generate. Corporations that profit from the cheap labor lobby the government for longer sentences and tougher crime laws. By doing this, they can guarantee they’ll have a cheap labor force for years to come. Everyone, except the prisoners, of course, profits.

When governments put their energy towards social services that could prevent crime and reduce incarceration rates, the public at large wins. As you can see, the powers that be aren’t too concerned with our collective well-being.

This can’t be said enough: It’s beyond time for our government to stop letting private interests guide their decision-making. If America is to reach it’s full potential, our leaders must consider everyone’s needs. When they don’t, it’s our duty to send them on their way and replace them with someone who will.

(Judge Greg Mathis is national vice president of Rainbow PUSH and a national board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.)

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