US inmates stage nationwide prison labor strike over 'modern slavery'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian


Organisers say prisoners across the country are expected to refuse to work, hold sit-ins and even stage hunger strikes

Ed Pilkington in New York
@edpilkington
Tue 21 Aug 2018 01.00 EDT

The first part of the prisons likely to be hit will be the kitchens, where stoves will remain unlit, ready-meals unheated and thousands of breakfasts uncooked.

From there the impact will fan out. The laundry will be left unwashed, prison corridors un-mopped, and the lawns on the external grounds ring-fenced with barbed wire will go uncut.

On Tuesday, America’s vast army of incarcerated men and women – at 2.3m of them they form by far the largest imprisoned population in the world – will brace itself for what has the potential to be the largest prison strike in US history.

Nineteen days of peaceful protest are planned across the nation, organised largely by prisoners themselves.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/20/prison-labor-protest-america-jailhouse-lawyers-speak

[gopiscrap]

1. Wow!!!

[cstanleytech]

2. I will be honest and say that if its things like cleaning the prison or

cooking their own meals that I have little sympathy for the prisoners.
On the other hand if it's doing things like working in a call center, cleaning trash off road or making things that are to be sold that they deserve fairer wages.

[moriah]

5. Inmates are often given higher wages for those jobs...

... leaving the people with no outside support stuck in jobs to maintain the prison with barely enough commissary to buy necessary hygiene products.

Which group do you think is going to strike first -- the people scrubbing toilets for enough money to buy shampoo and tampons for the month, or the people making shit the prison sells so are able to not just get shampoo but also actual food compared to prison food?

I'd say the toilet-scrubbers. Either provide the necessities and make commissary truly about luxuries like a Hershey bar and cigarettes, or make sure all jobs in the prison are at the same pay.

[NBachers]

3. As a long-time ex-Federal inmate I support this strike.

I was thrown in the hole and transferred to a higher-security institution by the warden and associate warden. I'd adopted a high-profile position on inmates' rights, and refused to back down to their threats. After I'd left, the hacks (guards) spread lies about my supposedly brutal new situation to keep the remaining inmates in line.

Inmates and their families are not a captive population to be strip-mined.

[whopis01]

7. Unfortunately our constitution allows slavery

The 13th amendment specifically allows slavery as punishment for a crime.

Until that is changed I don’t think you will see any true reform.

[Maraya1969]

4. I hope they are successful. Since the private prison industry these places are really like slavery

Remember "Private" means the goal is to make money.

Besides the problems with changes in the law that will allow these new prisons to fill up there are other problems when the prisons don't provide enough health care, if any. Pretty much everything is substandard and horrible now.


So I really hope they win!

[janterry]

9. I never understand this argument

My experience in the prisons is limited - I suppose - I've worked in three and volunteered in one. However, in all of the prisons that I've been in there was no difference in treatment/care of inmates between public and private prisons. The same abuses happened in both.

The only difference was that the guards were paid better in state prisons. All prisons provide heath care - btw - though it's true, it's not always very responsive. And, it's also true, they don't have access to the same kind of care they would on the outside (so in many cases, it is dangerously deficient).

The problem, ime, isn't public/private - it's that in both there isn't a mandate to work with the men/women on treatment. Instead, the mandate is security. In the past, when we provided better educational options for folks - there was considerable backlash. In the prisons that I worked in, men were arbitrarily moved from prison to prison and program to program (so if they started in plumbing and HVAC, for instance, there was a very good chance they'd never finish). And that was the VERY few that qualified for that program. My point is that even the educational programs that they have - suck - because no one cares if they really get the certificate. There were plenty of GED classes - though (some teachers, often classes taught by other inmates, which could be okay - but.....it wasn't. It was aimless and warehouse-y).

The men cared. But the institutional mandate was 'safety and security'. And that's our fault (the public). We don't want them getting degrees and learning skills that 'we can't get for free' outside of prison.

Also, the federal prisons rock. They have tons of money and lots of programs. Really, they are models and it's because they have programs and opportunities. Has nothing to do with that public/private thing except the FEDS put money into the institutions. Money matters.

[Maraya1969]

11. You say the overcrowding of prisons has nothing to do with private prisons wanting to make

the biggest profits possible; which is what private companies do?

And because that is what happened.


And I don't know personally about the other things. I've just read that things have gotten much worse in the last several years.

Prisons in the US are always going to be at full capacity as long as they are private. And that turns into abuses into its citizens.

[janterry]

13. Oh, for sure they wanted to make a profit.

Last edited Tue Aug 21, 2018, 03:26 PM - Edit history (1)

I have a MSW from a pretty good school and lots of experience. I was paid by one of the private prison groups (in this case, I was employed by them in their program dept - but the contract was only for the treatment program, the prison was run by the state) $29,500. That was just a few years ago.

I'm middle aged - so.....let's just say that the salary sucked.

But the bid went out by the state of FL and it was a game of 'how low can you go'. Yes, that had a lot to do with what happened. But if the state put the bid out and hired for quality (and paid for it) those terrible prison corporations (and they do suck!) would meet the obligation of the RFP. As it was, the bid that won the contract was the lowest.

So, they paid me no money. When they ran the prison, they paid the guards as little as they could, too.

From my experience, the issue of money is important - you're right. But the bigger problem is that when the RFP went out, treatment was low on the list. It was there (that's why we were there), but for sure the biggest mandate was 'safety and security.'

In the state prisons (public), the guards beat the inmates, berated them. (Absolute humiliation). The whole thing was terrible. The was no difference between one facility and the other (public vs. private) in terms of programs or guard abuse. (At least in my limited experience - and it was limited).

On the other hand, the guards made more working for the state- and staffing levels were slightly higher. And more guards makes the facility safer for the guards (especially) but also, probably, the inmates. (Not always, sometimes guards will let inmates beat the crap out of each other - so they don't have to deal with it --- or so, in their mind, a 'problem' inmate is dealt with.......you know, all kinds of weird stuff).

However, I do think there's some research to support lower violence levels in state run prisons.

But - imo - until we put money into the system and have a rehabilitation goal - the prisons will always suck.

In sharp contrast, the Federal prisons have TONS of programs. My guys didn't want to do their time there (they wanted gain time in the state prisons), but those that also had to do Federal time, were at least relieved that they could learn a trade or go to school.

Everyone in prison (everyone) wants to change. Not everyone will succeed, but if they all had opportunities to learn and get help (real help) with their post-prison transition, they for sure would do better.

[LanternWaste]

12. Documented and objective evidence, or merely one interpretation of what you witnessed?

"However, in all of the prisons that I've been in there was no difference in treatment/care of inmates between public and private prisons. The same abuses happened in both. .."

[janterry]

14. You bring up a good point

I have not done a proper lit review of prison research. When I was conducting research (I've done a little bit), it wasn't in the prisons. That's why I was clear with my own limitations.

However, I have pulled some of it, and as you might realize, prison populations are notoriously difficult to study. The last DOJ study of public/private prisons - looking at violence behind bars - was (according to an article in Mother Jones just last year) in 2001.

There are plenty of small scale studies, but I guess that was the last big one by DOJ. What I can tell you is that a survey of a prison is very complicated in general - I know that when auditors came into one of my prisons, an inmate told me that she didn't report about abuses because she didn't want to get into trouble (or get anyone else into trouble). This was when an auditor asked her in sotto voce. I think he left feeling like he had quietly gotten the 'skinny.' As it turned out, he had not.

Even my men were careful with what they said. They didn't want any retaliations and, sometimes, didn't want to get guards into trouble. You just put your head down and do your time - that's the motto of most prisoners. Anyway, I won't go into all of the confounds - but leave it to - when folks are IN prison, it's hard to good information and when they leave prison......they tend to want to have nothing to do with the state, researchers - anyone. So, information post-prison is also hard.

My interest, of course, is in rehabilitation programs (I worked in a substance abuse treatment program) and I can say that in FL, most programs were lacking.

Sure, on paper they had programs. But few benefited from them - I mean got a certificate that translated to a job post-prison. If I were designing a study, I might want to compare the Feds with the state prisons. As I've mentioned, the Federal system has GREAT programs. Programs offer hope (not just skills, though it 'for sure' offers that). Plus it helps control every day problems (you have something to do all day!)

At least in FL (and again, as I and you noted , in my limited experience - the state prisons had good programs on paper, but terrible ones IRL. They really didn't work.

I will add one thing about violence in the prisons. When you have 120 men in a single room, with no programs (or suck-y programs)......and all day long they are 'on top of each other). And it's hot (at least two of the prisons I worked at in FL had no air conditioning). Violence happens. Men get on each others nerves, they gamble (always a problem) and all kinds of other things.

No one could control that. Guards used all kinds of techniques to control it (good and bad - sometimes very bad). But imagine you're there - in the bubble - with one other guard watching 120 men.

Here's link to a picture of what it looked like (not of my prison, but another one I found online. This was similar to FL).
http://www.apr.org/post/prison-reform-alabamas-overcrowding-problem

[Scurrilous]

6. K&R

[PatrickforO]

8. Good.

Prison industries = slave labor.

NO prison should EVER be privatized.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. Prison labor is slave labor. Solidarity with incarcerated people.

[Solly Mack]

15. K&R

[Spartacus101]

16. When the US has more prisoners...

...per capita than Russia, Cuba, Rwanda and Turkmenistan, something's wrong; I think it must be "For-Profit" prisons.

Ref: https://www.statista.com/statistics/262962/countries-with-the-most-prisoners-per-100-000-inhabitants/

This is being overshadowed a bit by the ongoing National Orange Mess, this is not getting a lot of media coverage. One that is:

https://www.npr.org/2018/08/21/640630606/u-s-inmates-plan-nationwide-prison-strike-to-protest-labor-conditions

"Prisons should not be places of dwelling; they should be holding places until the rulers can figure out an appropriate punishment that fits and remedies the crime." (Old Asian Proverb)

Commit manslaughter, say, with a vehicle in Italy? Guess what? You have to support the deceased's dependents for a VERY long time. You can't do that from a jail cell.

Reform definitely needed, in many areas.

(I've been on lots of juries...and found that many cases swing on if the Judge's toast was burned that morning or not...don't get me wrong; that job has a very high rate of alcoholism, suicide, and busted marriages. I wouldn't want it! As for the makeup of juries and the process of picking them....another thread!)

But something HAS to be done. The current system is untenable.