Alabama prisoners refusing to work in 2nd day of protest
Tue, September 27, 2022
MONTGOMERY, Ala (AP) — Alabama inmates were in their second day of a work strike Tuesday, refusing to labor in prison kitchens, laundries and factories to protest conditions in the state’s overcrowded, understaffed lock-ups.
Prisoners including those who provide food, laundry and janitorial services refused to show up for work at major state prisons, leaving staff scrambling to keep the facilities running.
“They are running a slaughterhouse," Diyawn Caldwell, founder of the advocacy group Both Sides of the Wall, said of Alabama's prison system, which the U.S. Department of Justice has called one of the most violent and understaffed in the country. Caldwell's husband is incarcerated at a state prison.
The Department of Justice has an ongoing civil lawsuit against Alabama over conditions in its prisons, saying the state is failing to protect male inmates from inmate-on-inmate violence and excessive force at the hands of prison staff.
The 2020 lawsuit alleges that conditions in the prison system are so poor that they violate the ban on cruel and unusual punishment and that state officials are “deliberately indifferent” to the problems. Alabama officials have acknowledged problems in the prison system but dispute the Justice Department’s accusations.
The Alabama Department of Corrections confirmed Tuesday that the work stoppage was “still active in most male facilities.” However, the department maintained that “facilities are operational and there have been no disruption of critical services, which include meals.”
Family members of several inmates, however, said prisons were not distributing three daily meals and prisoners were given paper sacks containing corndogs or sandwiches.
Inmate labor provides a vital role in keeping prisons functioning.
“HOW LONG CAN 25 PEOPLE RUN A PRISON WITH 1000, 1800, 2300, etc. PRISONERS?” inmate organizers of the work stoppage wrote in a press statement about the strike.
Caldwell said organizers are hoping to persuade federal officials to go ahead intervene in the prison system. She said they are also seeking a number of changes related to release and sentencing such as repealing the Habitual Felony Offender Act, establishing uniform criteria for parole that would guarantee release, streamlining the review process for medical furloughs and reviewing elderly incarcerated individuals for immediate release.
Supporters, including family members, delivered the demands to the prison system headquarters after a protest on Monday.
A spokesperson for Gov. Kay Ivey told reporters that the demands were unreasonable and thanked prison staff for maintaining facilities.
"It is also important for these protestors to understand that a lot of their demands would require legislation, not unilateral action. Some of these demands suggest that criminals like murderers and serial child sex offenders can walk the streets, and I can tell you that will never happen in the state of Alabama where we will always prioritize the safety of our citizens," Ivey's office told news outlets.
The strike, while not directly related, comes after photos of an emaciated inmate at Alabama‘s Elmore Correctional Facility went viral. Kastellio Vaughan's sister had posted the photos to Facebook with the message, “Get Help.”
The disturbing image prompted outrage and allegation of medical neglect. The prison system said that Vaughan had refused medical assessment and left the hospital following surgery against medical advice
“This is horrific,” Ben Crump, an attorney representing Vaughan said in a statement. “Let’s be clear, the State of Alabama has tried to deflect any action or responsibility for Mr. Vaughan’s condition at every turn.
The prison system issued a statement Tuesday saying that Vaughn had surgery for an obstructed bowel in August and was hospitalized in September for a complication. Both times he was discharged against medical advice, the prison system said, and has since refused medical assessment and medical treatment.
“The ADOC offers medical assessment and treatment to all inmates but does not force them to accept that care,” the prison system said.
Michael Sainato
Tue, September 27, 2022
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
When prison reformer Johnny Perez was incarcerated he made sheets, underwear and pillowcases working for Corcraft, a manufacturing division of New York State Correctional Services that uses prisoners to manufacture products for state and local agencies. His pay ranged between 17 cents and 36 cents an hour.
“We have a system that forces people to work and not only forces them to work but does not give them an adequate living wage,” said Perez. “Slavery by any name is wrong. Slavery in any shape or form is wrong.”
Perez is now part of a nationwide movement that hopes to reform what some have called the “slavery loophole” that allows incarcerated people to be paid tiny sums for jobs that – if they refuse to do them – can have dire consequences.
The 13th amendment of the US constitution, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude. But it contained an exception for “a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted”.
This exception clause has been used to exploit prisoners in the US as workers, paying them nothing to a few dollars a day to perform jobs ranging from prison services to manufacturing or working for private employers where the majority of their pay is deducted for room and board and other expenses by the jurisdictions where they are incarcerated.
A report published by the American Civil Liberties Union in June 2022 found about 800,000 prisoners out of the 1.2 million in state and federal prisons are forced to work, generating a conservative estimate of $11bn annually in goods and services while average wages range from 13 cents to 52 cents per hour. Five states – Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas – force prisoners to work without pay. The report concluded that the labor conditions of US prisoners violate fundamental human rights to life and dignity.
A campaign to amend the constitution at the federal level and end the exception of the 13th amendment is being promoted by the US representative Nikema Williams and the senator Jeff Merkley. The bill has 175 co-sponsors in the House, 170 Democrats and 5 Republicans, and 14 co-sponsors in the US Senate, but has yet to leave committee for a floor vote in either the House or Senate.
In the meantime the #EndTheException coalition, consisting of more than 80 national organizations, including criminal justice reform, civil rights and labor groups, is leading efforts to pass the abolition amendment at the federal level and through ballot initiatives at the state level.
In November voters will decide on whether to remove exception clauses from their state constitutions in Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont. An abolition amendment passed in the California assembly, but failed to receive a Senate vote this year so that it could be on the ballot for voters this November.
“The reality is that it is 2022 and in the United States, slavery is still legal,” said Bianca Tylek, founder and executive director of the non-profit Worth Rises. “These five states would join Colorado, Utah and Nebraska, states that have already ended the exception of their state’s constitutions. And so that would be exciting, that would bring that number to eight, with five out the eight being red states and I think that bodes well for where the campaign can go at the federal level.”
It is time for change, said Johnny Perez. He emphasized that in prison, individuals aren’t provided adequate basic necessities such as food, toiletries, clothing and office supplies, and that the measly wages paid by these jobs don’t cover these extra expenses.
Refusing a work assignment can also have adverse consequences, he said, ranging from being placed in solitary confinement to having any work issues placed on your record which affects parole and status within a prison that determines what privileges you receive. Workers in prison do not get any paid time off and are often forced to work even when sick unless an infirmary affirms they are not able to work.
Despite having five years’ full-time experience manufacturing textiles while in prison, that experience isn’t included on Perez’s résumé; incarcerated people, rather than have educational programs available to better support them upon release, are forced to do arduous manual labor jobs and often aren’t able to find work in the same industry when they are released.
“It’s still continuing to happen and it disproportionately impacts Black, brown and Indigenous people in this country,” said Perez. “So long as the exception clause exists, we will always have an underclass in this society that is going to be the dumping ground for our problems and our shortcomings.”
This month the #EndTheException coalition launched the Except For Me digital campaign to raise awareness of the issues, ending with the delivery of a petition to Congress in support of the abolition amendment and an art installation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“This exception is about people and it’s about people for whom the 13th amendment doesn’t apply,” added Tylek. “We really want people to see those people and see the people that society has successfully otherwise hidden away.”
Among those featured in the campaign is Britt White, who worked at a Burger King franchise in Alabama while in community status until 2014; about 60% of her wages were taken by the state of Alabama to cover fees, room and board or restitution.
“Prison itself is expensive,” said White. “I can only speak for the state of Alabama where I was incarcerated, so providing hygiene, trying to supplement the lack of nourishment is very expensive, and my family had their own bills and financial responsibilities they had to take care of. I still had more support than most people did and it was still very difficult to survive in prison because everything has a cost associated with it.”
White explained there were medical fees associated with received medical care and sometimes the food provided was not fit for human consumption.
“I just can’t emphasize enough the lack of agency that you have,” added White. “If we are going to allow people who are incarcerated to work jobs, we need to pay them a livable wage and we need to center their dignity. We don’t need to place them in positions where there are hostile environments where they can be retaliated against and lose their agency.”
Her experience in the Alabama department of corrections drove her to work as an organizer in criminal justice reform to address the corruption and despair she witnessed and experienced in the prison system.
“We cannot condemn people, and then say that you deserve to be put away or you can’t come back to society, you’re not trustworthy enough to live in the community with other people, but you are still good enough for us to make a profit. That is unforgivable,” White said. “And that is the part that is still very reminiscent of slavery that my ancestors went through is that they were not good enough to be viewed as 100% as human beings, but they weren’t substantial enough to make a profit off of. That is the exception that has to be ended in our communities.”
Involuntary Servitude: How Prison Labor is Modern Day Slavery
Note: I have been using the term “incarcerated people” throughout my column (as opposed to “inmates”, “prisoners”, “criminals”, or similar labels). As I use this term frequently in this article, I wanted to clarify my motivation. The term “incarcerated people” emphasizes personhood, with “incarcerated” as a temporary descriptor of a person’s situation. The first step in criminal justice advocacy is to see incarcerated people as people first.
Joseph Lascaze, Manager of the Smart Justice Campaign for the ACLU of New Hampshire, looked forward to his job in the woodworking facility while incarcerated in New Hampshire. He says it helped to relieve the monotony of prison life, and gave him a chance to learn a new skill. Woodworking is not the most common of trades though — the number one job in prison is the job of a barber.
“People spend years cutting hair, becoming amazing barbers,” explains Lascaze. “But the irony is tremendous: once they are released from prison, they cannot become barbers, because it is illegal for felons to receive a barber’s license.”
This irony is a part of what activists call the “prison-industrial complex.” What is the prison-industrial complex? Why do people keep referring to prison labor as “modern day slavery”? What type of labor is performed by incarcerated people? Do they make money for it? And how should incarcerated people be allowed or required to spend their time?
The prison-industrial complex, most simply put, is a term used to describe the relationship between prisons and industry. It is a term encapsulating centuries of governmental and economic benefit from prisons and prison labor at the expense of those incarcerated. Prison abolition activists use the term as a catch-all to describe our system of incarceration. Critical Resistance, an abolition organization, uses the term “to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.” While the term “prison-industrial complex” refers to issues ranging from the construction of new prisons to the exorbitant costs of canteen items, one of most common associations with the term is with prison labor — a form of modern-day slavery.
Though the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution is known as the amendment which abolished slavery, there is an exception: as punishment for a crime of which one is “duly convicted,” slavery and involuntary servitude are permitted. Ratified in 1865, the 13th Amendment paved the way for Jim Crow laws in the South. Legislatures established black codes, strict laws explicitly punishing Black people for petty crimes such as loitering, not carrying proof of employment and more. Violators of these codes could be thrown in prison, and according to the 13th Amendment’s loophole, they could then be required to perform unpaid, harsh labor. Until World War II, this practice of “convict leasing” was common.
The convict leasing system was designed to continue the subjugation of Black people after slavery was outlawed; it was not until this system was implemented that there were more Black people than White people incarcerated in the US, and that has not changed. It is on the back of this system that our system of incarceration has been built.
While convict-leasing as an official practice has ended, the issue of prison labor has not been resolved. There are three primary types of labor performed in prison: in-house prison labor, industry labor, and work-release programs. This article will address the first two, as work-release programs fall more into the categories of alternative sentencing or pre-release options.
In-house prison labor is by far the most common type of prison labor, and typically refers to prison maintenance jobs including kitchen duty, cleaning, or groundskeeping. Workers can be punished, even sent to solitary confinement, for taking a sick day, even in the eight states where in-house labor is unpaid. But being paid is not much. The average low and high rates across the US for in-house labor are 14 and 63 cents per hour, respectively, and that is before wage garnishment, which can account for up to half of one’s earnings (though wage garnishments can arguably go to worthy sources, such as victims’ reparation funds). For a state-by-state breakdown of wages and sources, see this resource from the Prison Policy Initiative.
Not only do prison laborers receive pennies compared to the rest of the workforce, they do not receive any of the benefits of employment either. In employment law, a critical distinction is drawn between an employee and a worker: employees get protections and workers do not. Although current labor laws do not explicitly exclude incarcerated people from the employee category, lawsuits against prisons for labor violations have historically been found in favor of the prison due to the unique relationship between the employer and the “employee.” As of now, labor protections appear out of reach for incarcerated workers.
Slightly different from in-house prison labor, industry labor refers to non-prison-related jobs which incarcerated people can perform, including phone banking, packaging, textile work, etc. It often makes headlines when wildfires rage in California, as there is a prison-firefighter program which puts incarcerated peoples’ lives on the line to fight fires for as little as $1.45 a day — and then does not allow them to become firefighters when they are released. At the federal level, these jobs are regulated through the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program — now called UNICOR — and most states have similar state-level organizations. While participating companies are required to pay minimum wage, wage garnishment is practiced in industry jobs as well, even for room and board. In other words, some incarcerated individuals are paying rent on their prison cells.
The PIECP’s mission is “to protect society and reduce crime by preparing inmates with job training and practical work skills for reentry success.” It markets itself as a “thriving corrections program that provides marketable skills and qualifications for inmates to succeed as productive citizens in our communities.” However, even the Bureau of Justice admits that incarcerated people are not the “first beneficiaries” of PIECP income, and post-release, jobs are not guaranteed. Some companies will use prison labor, and then refuse to hire the same person who worked for them while incarcerated as part of a company policy not to hire those with criminal records.
While the fewest number of incarcerated people work industry jobs, their labor still produces billions of dollars for the economy, providing a strong incentive for companies to continue to support prison proliferation as opposed to criminal justice reform. And these are influential organizations too — companies such as Pillsbury and Campbell Soup source from PIECP participants. You in fact, may be — and Harvard certainly is — contributing to the prison industrial complex by purchasing or investing in companies which operate or contract with prisons. Do not take this as a personal attack — it just goes to show how deeply entrenched our economic system is in prison labor (though if you are interested in how your investments may be contributing to the PIC, check out this tool).
There are some — notably formerly incarcerated individuals themselves — who argue that the issue of prison labor is overplayed or misplaced in social justice activism. Some argue that the real problem in prison is boredom and not overwork, and argue that the solution is more diverse job training, not less labor. Others argue that labor brings meaning to life, and anti-prison-labor activists deter companies from contracting fairly with prisons — which would be a good thing — for fear of criticism for contracting with prisons at all. There seems, however, to be consensus that the status quo is unfair.
This consensus hovers around two main issues: the conditions of prison labor and the impact of the prison labor industry on mass incarceration. Even if one were to argue that incarcerated people do not deserve to work in the same conditions as everyday citizens, one would still be faced with the fact that allowing the proliferation of prison labor incentivizes the mass incarceration of largely black and brown folks to their detriment, and to the benefit of big businesses. If the goal of prison labor — as PIECP states — is to contribute to the rehabilitation of incarcerated people to facilitate their reintegration into society, then I believe a few things need to change:
- Incarcerated people must be afforded the same labor rights as every employee, especially the right to report unfair/discriminatory labor practices withough fear of retaliation.
- Incarcerated people should be paid commensurate with their job difficulty and the prison economy.
- Incarcerated people must not be forced or otherwise coerced into dangerous work; if they choose to engage in such work, feedback and safety protocols should be robust.
- No company should be able to benefit from prison labor if they are unwilling to hire formerly incarcerated individuals; there should be well-established pathways from incarcerated employment to employment after re-entry.
- Past incarceration status should be added to the list of protected characteristics for employment.
In summary, in a system modeled off of slavery and under threat of punishment or lack of funds for necessities, most incarcerated individuals work full days, making less than $1 per hour with no benefits and with no guarantee of post-release employment. While one may argue that incarcerated people should be satisfied to have any work or income at all, the conditions of their “employment” are not livable.
Joseph Lascaze does not like telling people he was formerly incarcerated, but he says he does so both for transparency and to initiate a “cultural shift.” While campaigns like Ban the Box — a push to remove the criminal record checkbox from job applications — are popular, Lascaze thinks that what is ultimately needed is for society to view people with criminal records first and foremost as people. I can only agree.
Image by Javad Esmaeili licensed under the Unsplash License.
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