'This is slavery': U.S. inmates strike (again)

In his 29 years in prison, David Bonner has mopped floors, cooked hot dogs in the cafeteria and, most recently, cut sheets of aluminum into Alabama license plates.

The last job paid $2 a day — enough to buy a bar of soap at the commissary or make a short phone call.

He's among a growing national movement of prisoners who have staged work stoppages or hunger strikes this fall to protest dismal wages, abusive guards, overcrowding and poor healthcare, among other grievances.

Looks like the prisoners are mad, wonder why. Let's take a look.

Correction officials say prison labor gives inmates job skills and a sense of independence, a view supported by some studies. Many prisoners say they wouldn’t mind working but want more pay and protections on par with jobs outside prisons. The work goes far beyond maintaining the prisons or producing goods for the government. Prison labor often benefits private enterprises.

By some estimates, prison workers save individual states and U.S. companies billions a year in wages.

And there it is, and there is the reason the prisoners will continue to be used by companies. To save these companies $.

I can see limiting the amount of money being given to the prisoners, but the companies that are, what some would call, exploiting these prisoners should provide restitution to the many many victims. But the companies that are profiting off the prisoners labor won't, that sweet sweet money that they have grown accustomed to will come first, victims don't even enter into the equation.

www.latimes.com...

a reply to: seasonal

Here in South Carolina, inmates do not receive pay, except for those very long term members that were grandfathered in.

If you work, it's to either earn work credits to shorten your sentence. For non-violent offenders, that works out to having to only do about 52 percent of the time when you factor in "good time" (time off for good behavior). Violent offenders only get 15 percent off.

Family and friends can send money to their loved ones in prison using a special fund called a Cooper account (money itself is considered contraband. Get caught with real money and you're going to lock up).

For those that don't have anyone sending them money, the state provides them with a few stamped envelopes, paper, pencils (for writing letters), disposable razors, soap and shampoo each month. Not ideal stuff, but it is what it is.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Smart, take the $ out of the equation, but are they making consumer goods? That means a company is making $ of off a prisoners effort in exchange for the shorter incarceration or WC.

a reply to: seasonal

Yep, there are some Private Industries that use the prisons. Work is voluntary and the industry pays the inmates (not the state).

If I remember right some of the prisons make:

Wooden flooring, work gloves, packaging sports equipment, packaging different types of laundry detergent are the ones I seem to recall. Of course this was 16 years ago while I was doing work for SCDC.

Many inmates work to simply have something to do. Depending on the level of camp you are at maters too. Level 1 camps normally don't even have a fence around them, have work release programs, and are pretty laid back. Level 2 camps have fences with razor wire, flight risk inmates do time there (along with long term or lifers), movement is controlled mostly. Level 3 camps are where the really bad guys are at. Movement is strictly controlled at those.

Then there is Super Max in Columbia. That's a hole in the ground, reserved for those who have committed so very, very bad things. Civilian workers get patted down there.

But even the guys that only get 15 percent off their sentence work, simply to make the time go buy. Inmates I talked to have a saying:

"You either do your time......or you let the time do you."

Having been in the US Navy, stuck on a ship in the middle of the ocean for months at a time, I can completely understand what they mean by that saying.

Who pays for the cable tv and rec equipment in prison?

Food? Medical? Clothes? Rent?

They call it Prison for a reason.

Haha u think that's slavery,try cutting blackberry 9hrs a day with a sickle for 2dollars a WEEK, I'm in NZ,you guys have got it good over there,lol

a reply to: burgerbuddy

No cable over here in jail,everything was run on batteries and still #ting in a can up to 10yrs ago

Get the tear gas.

a reply to: seasonal

I guess my first question is...

How did they get there in the first place?
Committing a crime????

I'm sorry but prison should be more focused on making people not want to come back and/or rehabilitating the prisoners. I'm sorry but they lose rights when going to prison correct?

I guess it's just the previous generations in me, but DONT BREAK THE LAW

a reply to: seasonal

Prisons should be run by the state only, and not private enterprise. There should be no private contracts involved. Everything from the food the prisoners eat, to the chemicals they use to clean the floors, to the paper they wipe their behinds with should be provided by the state. Further to that, the only people who have any legitimate reason to benefit from the labour the prisoners do, are victims of crime and the states, cities, towns, villages and other classifications of communities, affected by the crimes of the incarcerated.

Get the prisons back into state hands, and out of the corporate arena. Until there is no profit in locking up potheads and non-violent offenders, the government and the police force will continue to leave the large scale criminals to run the shadows. They must be forced to act correctly, which will not happen as long as the gravy train remains on the tracks. It must be derailed, with all possible haste.

a reply to: TrueBrit

1000% agreed,

a reply to: seasonal

And there it is, and there is the reason the prisoners will continue to be used by companies. To save these companies $.

IMO I could care less how a prisoner is used in prison as long as they are a violent criminal properly convicted.

The problem I see with companies making money of prisoners is that it encourages for wrongly convicted citizens to get locked up.

So while many here will say screw them they are in prison , which I agree to a point, its only a matter of time when the companies will come after you and your family and tweak the laws to virtually allow anyone to be arrested. This has already started to a point with how we lock up marijuana users and other non violent criminals which consume a large population of our jails if not most.

The incentive is for companies to make money not to rehabilitate or help society so guess what will happen.

a reply to: seasonal

End private prisons.

a reply to: interupt42

its only a matter of time when the companies will come after you and your family and tweak the laws to virtually allow anyone to be arrested.

Yep, I could be you is a very real motivation to get this prison train under control. MJ is a major problem. But a little head way was made, but it was very little.

As of June 2016, 25 states and Washington, D.C. have legalized the use of medical marijuana.[3] Currently, the FDA is conducting an analysis, at the request of the DEA, on whether marijuana should be downgraded, said Douglas Throckmorton, Deputy Director for Regulatory Programs at the FDA, at a congressional hearing in June 2014.[4] In August 2016 the DEA reaffirmed its position and refused to remove Schedule I classification.[5] However, the DEA announced that it will end restrictions on the supply of marijuana to researchers and drug companies that had previously only been available from the government's own facility at the University of Mississippi.[6]

en.wikipedia.org...

For max security prisons, I could careless if inmates are breaking rocks all day. If these guys are too dangerous to let back out on the streets, they deserve what they get.

On the other hand, if it is one of the lower security prisons where inmates will be eventually heading home, I believe we should be offering the inmates some type of life skills and training to help ease themselves back into society. I have acquaintances serving time at a Level 1 Camp and he is literally getting nothing out of it. Fortunately, he will have some support when he gets home but I can see how some guys will just fall back into the street life as they won't have any other alternatives available to them.

I have mixed feelings about private industries running prisons. States are not very efficient hence why they privatize. I believe prisoners should be doing maintenace work, cleaning up, and other needed labor whether it is picking up trash on the highway or doing construction work or running the prison kitchen.

I definitely don't think consumer oriented companies should be benefiting from cheap prison labor.

a reply to: Edumakated

With the $80,000,000,000 spent on prisons, I would hope to gain on lowering the recidivism rate. But no luck.

I would also like to see the prisons not be a breeding ground to make better criminals.

I would also like to see less (alot) people going in.

But what do you want for $80,000,000,000?

In Michigan they contracted the prison food out to a private company. They've been finding maggots and stuff in the food they've been feeding to the prisoners.

a reply to: wantsome

In Michigan they contracted the prison food out to a private company. They've been finding maggots and stuff in the food they've been feeding to the prisoners.

When I started school in 1975, the kitchen staff made EVERYTHING. From pizza to tacos. Now the crap they serve is low end vending machine food. It's about profit! Screw our kids, mine take a brown bag, 98% of the time.

Now we introduce the profit motive to a captive audience, with very little in the way of grievance procedure. Not too smart, corps will do anything they can to make next quarters wallstreet number look great. I would imagine cutting corners on quality food is an easy no brainer to a suit ridden pencil pusher who's bonus depends on it.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: wantsome

In Michigan they contracted the prison food out to a private company. They've been finding maggots and stuff in the food they've been feeding to the prisoners.

I would imagine cutting corners on quality food is an easy no brainer to a suit ridden pencil pusher who's bonus depends on it.

Seems to have become the American way with everything now.

a reply to: wantsome
Here is a story, maybe the one you were talking about.

Inmates protest food quality at second northern Michigan prison

KINCHELOE, Mich. >> Inmates at a second prison in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula have participated in a peaceful protest over the quality of food provided by a state contractor, an official said.

Oldsmar, Florida-based Trinity Services Group replaced Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services as Michigan’s prison food contractor last year.

Trinity’s three-year, $158 million prison food contract was approved in July after Gov. Rick Snyder announced that Michigan and Aramark had mutually agreed to end their troubled three-year, $145 million contract early. Aramark and the state cut ties after company-initiated talks about a possible billing increase and other issues.

Michigan had fined Aramark $200,000 for unapproved menu substitutions, worker misconduct and other issues.

Oh gosh, they were fined .0012 % I'm super duper sure the Aramark won't won't ever dare cross any state again, not after loosing $2000,000. Joke fine.
Try driving with an expired tag on you car, get ready for a 200% fine compared to the new tag.

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