The Industries That Make Huge Profits Using the Prison Industrial Complex
Prison labor is common place in the United States. Some people call it prison slavery due to its very low or no pay, and the inmate’s long working hours. Historically, these people are right. Prison Industrial Complex was created shortly after the 13th amendment went into effect. Manufacturers needed a way to keep costs down, so prison labor programs started to appear across the country.
There are 2.4 million people working in prison labor, and they are the ones who make nearly all the “American Made” products. It is prison slavery since most inmates are forced to work 8 hours per day and make from .23 to 1.15 an hour. The major problem is that nearly every inmate will leave prison with a huge amount of debt. At the same time, the major businesses are receiving huge tax cuts for using prison labor. Here are some industries that use prison labor to cut their costs.
Food Processing and Packing
There are many prisons across the United States that use prison labor to make food to feed the inmates. However, prison labor is also used to process and package items that are sold in grocery stores nationwide. During 2008, Caroline White reported in Mother Jones that prisoners in California were processing over 680,000 pounds of beef, 400,000 product of chicken, 2.9 million eggs, 280,000 bread loaves and 450,000 gallons of milk. Other items like coffee are also processed and packaged by inmates. It seems that is an enormous amount of product per capita of the California prison population and it’s needs.
Agriculture
As more states crack down on farmers for employing undocumented workers, prison labor is becoming a common source of labor on farms. This is taking place in most states. Idaho has a law that allows farmers to hire prison inmates for farm labor. The law was signed by State Sen. Patti Anne Lodge in 2014.
The Technology Sector
While most of the technology products that we have today are made in China, there are some that are made or package by prison labor in the United States. The move to prison labor from outsourcing is to keep the price of the work low. The work that is being done by the inmates is mostly taking apart old computers, and finding pieces that can be recycled. Some prisons will have inmates build recycled desktops, or have inmates package items like keyboards, and software.
Prison labor is commonly referred to as Insourcing and is becoming a large commodity in private an public prisons. The Prison Industrial Complex was a basic replacement for traditional slavery. This is thanks to a loophole in the 13th amendment. Just about everything that is made in the USA comes from prison labor. There are many other brands that currently use prison labor, which are too numerous to list.