Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/29/prison-labor-in-massachusetts.html
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I am not really all that surprised, since a lot of people who want to run prisons are in it to dominate. And really, what can be more domineering, more humiliating than to make convicts manufacture stuff that glorifies the bullies that put them behind bars in the first place?
It all just reminds me of how my Grandpa always use to pronounce the state’s name as MassaTwoShits.
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Truly depraved.
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I wonder if MassCor would quote a price for a custom order of a hundred Confederate flags.
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It’s also the New Hampshire inmates who, for decades now, have been stamping out the state’s “Live Free or Die” license plates.
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I once worked in an office building that the FBI moved into (why they are allowed to occupy an office building with many other random tenants is a question I asked myself nearly every day until my company finally moved out of the building) and a label from their shipment of filing cabinets fell off in the hallway. I picked it up and read it: “Manufactured by Federal Prisons Industries” it read, “wow…” I said.
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I know there’s no criminal penalty or enforcement, but as this clearly violates the US Flag Code, couldn’t an injunction be sought to end this?
Well, I’m sure all the cops who were convicted of murder and excessive force violations appreciate it. Oh, wait.
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work release programs like the one in the Maine State Prison system
New England has always had the best work release programs. Just ask Miami.
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The important distinction being lost here is between job training and outsourced manual labor. The former is the “old fashioned” form of prison work, where the prison has a woodworking shop or auto repair shop and prisoners learn how to do that work while selling things in the gift shop or maintaining the city motor pool. These programs seem like a pretty unambiguously good idea.
This new thing is where private companies have come in and said “let us manage your job training program” and converted it all into a cheap source of manual labor. This seems pretty unambiguously cruel.
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Bingo.
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The US never abolished slavery. Just narrowed its scope. The 13th amendment explicitly makes exceptions for the prison industrial complex.
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Indeed, and as @LDoBe mentions below, this form of slavery is still legal in the US. Of course private enterprises will take full advantage of it!
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SSDD.
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that’s a really good framing.
i for one can see the appeal of taking whatever work you’re given in prison. it gives you something to do when there’s so little you can do
not that making blue lives matter paraphernalia, or packaging fish for whole foods so they can reduce their labor costs are the sorts of choices prisoners should be forced to make
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In California, many prisoners volunteer as firefighters to help combat the state’s many annual wildfires.
One might hope that this training could provide a path to a productive post-prison career as a professional firefighter. But alas, as soon as they leave prison convicts are no longer eligible to pursue that vocation.
The system is currently designed to prevent prisoners from rejoining society in any meaningful way.
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Why am I not suprised at this. God I wish I could be.
You can visit the UNICOR website here for all your prison labor based shopping needs.
From the UNICOR FAQ: Federal Prison Industries (commonly referred to as FPI, or by its trade name UNICOR), is a wholly-owned government corporation established by Congress on June 23, 1934. Its mission is to protect society and reduce crime by preparing inmates for successful reentry through job training. Inmate pay rates range from 23 cents to $1.15 per hour.
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