The Prison-Industrial Complex --- “Auschwitz?” right here in “River City” !

"Arbeit Macht Frei" is a German phrase meaning "work brings freedom" or "work shall set you free/will free you" or "work liberates" and, literally in English; "work makes free". It became the unofficial slogan of Nazi concentration camps as the prisoners would enter the camps they would see the black wrought iron sign.

Unicor is a U.S. government corporation of Federal Prison industries whose purpose is to train and educate prisoners. This is not the old convict chain gang cutting grass or picking up trash or making license plates.

This is a high tech operation with over 20,000 employees/ (federal) prisoners producing thousands of products at over fifty locations. Their motto is, "When Prisoners work the System works" Yes indeed the system does work "work makes free." Need furniture or shelving? How about linens? Document storage and retrieval got you down? Need a new handbook or manual written? How about eyeglasses? How about advanced electronics or wiring harnesses. Unicor can provide it all as they offer "an escape proof guarantee"!

Unicor by law, may only sell its products to Federal departments, agencies, government institutions, and their authorized contractors or representatives. Hmmm……. authorized contractors or representatives. I wonder who that would be? General Dynamics? Lockheed Martin? Haliburton? They are after all government contractors and when Haliburton builds a rec room in Doha guess who makes the furniture and the kitchen fixtures and the table cloths and the plastic food trays and the cups and even the plastic ware ……….. that's right federal prisoners.

Remember all those reports about Werner Von Braun and slaves being forced to build V2 rockets? Take three guesses who builds wiring harnesses for the Patriot missile systems. Say are you setting up a new government in a faraway land and need office furniture? Yes, Unicor can help. Are you setting up a new Army and in need of Uniforms and Helmets? Body armor, body armor, body armor have we got body armor and we can ship from our Yazzoo City Mississippi location in 30 days or less. Unicor is a veritable mall of savings. But Unicor how can you keep prices so low? We use virtual slave labor and pass the savings on to you!

Unicor wages start at .23 cents an hour and with the right work ethic and persistence our prison laborer can work his way up to almost $1.15 an hour! But wait! We don't actually pay them that! Don't be silly, we give them only a fraction of that to spend at the canteen. You see when prisoners work the system works and the system runs the canteen. Now let’s say our prisoner owes a $5000.00 Federal fine at 23 cents an hour working eight hour days with no vacations he can pay that off in just seven and a half years. But wait, he owes $200.00 a month child support so we take his month’s pay of $36.80 and apply that towards his child support and he's only in the hole for $163.00 a month plus his fine!

A slave prisoner that owes money for every month he works so why bother? "Arbeit Macht Frei" You want a parole don't you? You want to get out of here don't you?
Well they certainly don't give parole to those who refuse to work now do they? Besides with hard work you might work your way up to that top wage of $188 dollars a month less child support, fines and taxes of course.

What excuse could a government of a free country use to explain away slave labor?
Good government of course! You see every dollar spent with Unicor they claim eliminates $6.51 in law enforcement, court costs and recidivism plus we teach them a trade. Of course the neglect to mention that every dollar spent with Unicor is a dollar taken out of the civilian economy and from employers, you know people who pay real wages who must now compete with slave labor.

But wait, we have cooperative ventures where private companies work with Unicor
to provide you with the best in slave labor industries! Amerimac/Unicor Ltd. Provides promotional items and yes even the famous license plates (sorry, no letter openers or pocket knives). But not the ones with numbers on them only the novelty plates like. "I make a fortune with slave laborers ask me how?" How about signs and badges? Unicor in conjunction with 2/90 signs can bring you a wide assortment of designs and colors.

Amerimac/Unicor

290 signs
From their website 2/90 signs claims "OUR PEOPLE are our biggest asset, because without skilled and dedicated employees any company's product quality and level of service is compromised. The vast majority of people at 2/90 have more than seven years’ experience with the company, and many individuals have 15 to 30 years tenure." I imagine some have 15 to life.

What about outsourcing? Unicor can help! What if I've just moved my factory overseas? Then let Unicor help you set up a call center! After all that's why we advertise ourselves as the best kept secret in outsourcing, "With more fulfillment work going outside the U.S.A., it might be time for you to team up with Unicor / Federal Prison Industries" Be it direct mail services, Inventory Management, Product order fulfillment, Warehousing Distribution management Unicor can handle it.
Reverse Logistics and Distribution Outsourcing, Assembly and packaging, repackaging, sorting services, pick/pack operations and inventory management. Uncle Sam's club is here for you! All our manufactured goods are proudly made in the USA.

In its mission statement The Federal Prison industries calls to employ and provide skills training to the greatest practicable number of inmates confined within Federal Bureau of Prisons contribute to the safety and security of our Nation's correctional facilities by keeping inmates constructively occupied; produce market-price quality goods for sale to the Federal Government; operate in a self-sustaining manner; and minimize FPI's impact on private business and labor.

With many States also “participating” and with the U.S. prison population around 2.4 million (more than double from 1990 !), no wonder it’s good “government” and good “business”! Many States deal directly with corporations for labor, and some even export goods!

The concept is nothing new of course. American prisons have had contractor/labor systems since the 1700’s.
“Nations” have had systems for 1000’s of years.

Even GATT says international prison labor was OK!
International Prison Labor OK!

Many of those opposed to prison labor in the US cite article XX of the GATT which states,

Subject to the requirement that such measures are not applied in a manner which would constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between countries where the same conditions prevail, or a disguised restriction on international trade, nothing in the Agreement shall be construed to prevent the adoption or enforcement by any contracting party of measures:
...
e) relating to the products or prison labor.

This article states in clear terms that the GATT agreement in no way restricts the use of prison labor as long as it does not violate any other terms of the contract while at the same time leaving "prison labor" open to individual interpretation. It makes no mention of wages to be paid, labeling or human rights.

UNESCO and its affiliated organizations have also made many references and agreements on the use of prison labor, mostly in regards to human rights. For example, the Convention concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour under the ILO discussed and defined forced labor in the international marketplace. However, the Convention provided for, "the suppression of such labor in all its forms subject to exceptions relating to compulsory military service, normal civic obligations, convict labor and minor communal services" (UNESCO 72). So, this agreement, and others like it under UNESCO, makes prison labor an exception.

WTO Africa Modern “Slavery”

Prison Encyclopedia

$2.4 billion output !
Who Profits

Pentagon Slaves


OH….they got “paid” in Auschwitz too!
Auschwitz Money


Is this current system the “Auschwitz” of Washington D.C. ?

AND, just WHO “owns” all this ?

Is this keeping prices down while adding to unemployment ?

Is this TPTB at work ?

What other nations are doing this now-a-days ?

Prison is not supposed to be a holiday camp, diffrence between these prisioners and the jewish people of WWII is that these prisoners where convicted by jury of their peers and I for one hate to see my tax dollars go for them to sit around all day and play the system.

Make them all work, train them and give them skills they can apply outside prision.

Originally posted by michaelmcclen
Prison is not supposed to be a holiday camp, diffrence between these prisioners and the jewish people of WWII is that these prisoners where convicted by jury of their peers and I for one hate to see my tax dollars go for them to sit around all day and play the system.

Make them all work, train them and give them skills they can apply outside prision.

edit on 30-6-2011 by michaelmcclen because: grammar

Im going to have to agree with you here. Yet, I do see the negative impact on the unemployment rate, and the potential for abuse. Abuse as in, 'oh we cant meet production? Over the next year frame 200 citizens and they will become our new laborers." So maybe im not for it. In a perfect world we would have this system with a high grade watchdog position in place.

just want to add that ther was also the slogan: Jedem das Seine @ Buchenwald





In English, it means "To Each his Own," or "Everyone gets what he deserves."

(and for further informations: they build that camp during the world wide positivly recieved olympic games, just a few miles away from all the happiness...and here comes moar - the olympic torch-run was an hitler-idea and is still in practice...)

reply to post by michaelmcclen


So you think somebody who's caught with some drug should be sent to a work prison, forced to work for 23 cents an hour for 10+ years to pay off their fine/sentence??? And did you not know that there are multiple incentives for lobbyist to corrupt the system because it benefits them to put more people in prison?? There's PROOF out showing that private prisons make profit with the more prisoners they withhold, so they influence the laws and courts in response. You missed the main point of this thread, which just goes to show the level of ignorance thriving today.

reply to post by Raelsatu


ignorance this and ignorance that......

Yes I comprehend that big businesses are making alot of money from prisoners and that these are jobs that could be given to the general public for minimum wage.

Here is one of your sheriffs talking about how much it cost to keep an inmate in jail ($94 per day)
source

So instead of taking money from tax paying law abiding citizens how about we start criminals on a tab of $90 a day. Most Americans make $65 on average per day Source so even after a full day of slaving over the machines prisioners will still owe the system $25 per day.

Where does this money come from? Me and you. Grow up, move on and stop calling people ignorant because you dont see the real issue of how much prisioners cost tax payers and have no solution to the problem rather than commenting on my post with no input of your own.

When you are in prison, you are a slave. It's even written into our Constitution. The text of the 13th Amendment:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Pertinent part I've emboldened.

That doesn't mean I necessarily agree with it, but there it is. Making prisoners work keeps them busy productively. Some people in prison want to work and feel like they've done something worth doing. I don't have a single problem with it. They can work and make goods and feel like they're doing something, or they can eat each other. Either is fine with me.

/TOA

Originally posted by michaelmcclen
Prison is not supposed to be a holiday camp, diffrence between these prisioners and the jewish people of WWII is that these prisoners where convicted by jury of their peers and I for one hate to see my tax dollars go for them to sit around all day and play the system.

Make them all work, train them and give them skills they can apply outside prision.

edit on 30-6-2011 by michaelmcclen because: grammar

While your at it make prisons more like boot camp in the beginning. Towards the end put in place some sort of program so they can adjust to being in society. This way it's not a revolving door and a waste of my taxes.

Our tax dollars are still being used to fund these prisons 100%. What they get from the slave labor is all corporate profits.

What a complete and total scam.
No wonder they love the war on drugs, it's puts many otherwise productive and non-violent people into prisons where they can provide free labor too!

Great thread Xuenchen

T^her old sherriffs departments have been filling up their qquotas for the chain gangs since forever in the USA.
Whats new is the corporations are getting into the act.You can bet there will be an uptick in people going to jail for frivolous reasons more and more.

I think all prisoners should work to pay their keep.. Its their fault why should we have to pay for their # 0 tax dollars should go to the prison system..

Originally posted by xuenchen
"Arbeit Macht Frei" is a German phrase meaning "work brings freedom" or "work shall set you free/will free you" or "work liberates" and, literally in English; "work makes free". It became the unofficial slogan of Nazi concentration camps as the prisoners would enter the camps they would see the black wrought iron sign.

Unicor is a U.S. government corporation of Federal Prison industries whose purpose is to train and educate prisoners. This is not the old convict chain gang cutting grass or picking up trash or making license plates.

This is a high tech operation with over 20,000 employees/ (federal) prisoners producing thousands of products at over fifty locations. Their motto is, "When Prisoners work the System works" Yes indeed the system does work "work makes free." Need furniture or shelving? How about linens? Document storage and retrieval got you down? Need a new handbook or manual written? How about eyeglasses? How about advanced electronics or wiring harnesses. Unicor can provide it all as they offer "an escape proof guarantee"!

Unicor by law, may only sell its products to Federal departments, agencies, government institutions, and their authorized contractors or representatives. Hmmm……. authorized contractors or representatives. I wonder who that would be? General Dynamics? Lockheed Martin? Haliburton? They are after all government contractors and when Haliburton builds a rec room in Doha guess who makes the furniture and the kitchen fixtures and the table cloths and the plastic food trays and the cups and even the plastic ware ……….. that's right federal prisoners.

Remember all those reports about Werner Von Braun and slaves being forced to build V2 rockets? Take three guesses who builds wiring harnesses for the Patriot missile systems. Say are you setting up a new government in a faraway land and need office furniture? Yes, Unicor can help. Are you setting up a new Army and in need of Uniforms and Helmets? Body armor, body armor, body armor have we got body armor and we can ship from our Yazzoo City Mississippi location in 30 days or less. Unicor is a veritable mall of savings. But Unicor how can you keep prices so low? We use virtual slave labor and pass the savings on to you!

Unicor wages start at .23 cents an hour and with the right work ethic and persistence our prison laborer can work his way up to almost $1.15 an hour! But wait! We don't actually pay them that! Don't be silly, we give them only a fraction of that to spend at the canteen. You see when prisoners work the system works and the system runs the canteen. Now let’s say our prisoner owes a $5000.00 Federal fine at 23 cents an hour working eight hour days with no vacations he can pay that off in just seven and a half years. But wait, he owes $200.00 a month child support so we take his month’s pay of $36.80 and apply that towards his child support and he's only in the hole for $163.00 a month plus his fine!

A slave prisoner that owes money for every month he works so why bother? "Arbeit Macht Frei" You want a parole don't you? You want to get out of here don't you?
Well they certainly don't give parole to those who refuse to work now do they? Besides with hard work you might work your way up to that top wage of $188 dollars a month less child support, fines and taxes of course.

What excuse could a government of a free country use to explain away slave labor?
Good government of course! You see every dollar spent with Unicor they claim eliminates $6.51 in law enforcement, court costs and recidivism plus we teach them a trade. Of course the neglect to mention that every dollar spent with Unicor is a dollar taken out of the civilian economy and from employers, you know people who pay real wages who must now compete with slave labor.

But wait, we have cooperative ventures where private companies work with Unicor
to provide you with the best in slave labor industries! Amerimac/Unicor Ltd. Provides promotional items and yes even the famous license plates (sorry, no letter openers or pocket knives). But not the ones with numbers on them only the novelty plates like. "I make a fortune with slave laborers ask me how?" How about signs and badges? Unicor in conjunction with 2/90 signs can bring you a wide assortment of designs and colors.

Amerimac/Unicor

290 signs
From their website 2/90 signs claims "OUR PEOPLE are our biggest asset, because without skilled and dedicated employees any company's product quality and level of service is compromised. The vast majority of people at 2/90 have more than seven years’ experience with the company, and many individuals have 15 to 30 years tenure." I imagine some have 15 to life.

What about outsourcing? Unicor can help! What if I've just moved my factory overseas? Then let Unicor help you set up a call center! After all that's why we advertise ourselves as the best kept secret in outsourcing, "With more fulfillment work going outside the U.S.A., it might be time for you to team up with Unicor / Federal Prison Industries" Be it direct mail services, Inventory Management, Product order fulfillment, Warehousing Distribution management Unicor can handle it.
Reverse Logistics and Distribution Outsourcing, Assembly and packaging, repackaging, sorting services, pick/pack operations and inventory management. Uncle Sam's club is here for you! All our manufactured goods are proudly made in the USA.

In its mission statement The Federal Prison industries calls to employ and provide skills training to the greatest practicable number of inmates confined within Federal Bureau of Prisons contribute to the safety and security of our Nation's correctional facilities by keeping inmates constructively occupied; produce market-price quality goods for sale to the Federal Government; operate in a self-sustaining manner; and minimize FPI's impact on private business and labor.

With many States also “participating” and with the U.S. prison population around 2.4 million (more than double from 1990 !), no wonder it’s good “government” and good “business”! Many States deal directly with corporations for labor, and some even export goods!

The concept is nothing new of course. American prisons have had contractor/labor systems since the 1700’s.
“Nations” have had systems for 1000’s of years.

Even GATT says international prison labor was OK!
International Prison Labor OK!

Many of those opposed to prison labor in the US cite article XX of the GATT which states,

Subject to the requirement that such measures are not applied in a manner which would constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between countries where the same conditions prevail, or a disguised restriction on international trade, nothing in the Agreement shall be construed to prevent the adoption or enforcement by any contracting party of measures:
...
e) relating to the products or prison labor.

This article states in clear terms that the GATT agreement in no way restricts the use of prison labor as long as it does not violate any other terms of the contract while at the same time leaving "prison labor" open to individual interpretation. It makes no mention of wages to be paid, labeling or human rights.

UNESCO and its affiliated organizations have also made many references and agreements on the use of prison labor, mostly in regards to human rights. For example, the Convention concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour under the ILO discussed and defined forced labor in the international marketplace. However, the Convention provided for, "the suppression of such labor in all its forms subject to exceptions relating to compulsory military service, normal civic obligations, convict labor and minor communal services" (UNESCO 72). So, this agreement, and others like it under UNESCO, makes prison labor an exception.

WTO Africa Modern “Slavery”

Prison Encyclopedia

$2.4 billion output !
Who Profits

Pentagon Slaves


OH….they got “paid” in Auschwitz too!
Auschwitz Money


Is this current system the “Auschwitz” of Washington D.C. ?

AND, just WHO “owns” all this ?

Is this keeping prices down while adding to unemployment ?

Is this TPTB at work ?

What other nations are doing this now-a-days ?

edit on Jun-30-2011 by xuenchen because: (no reason given)

Greetings fellow Las Vegan !

Looks like ya found out about the great American slave trade... Here's another supporting thread on this very subject I authored awhile back:

So all you unemployed Americans... need a job?

"When the Prisoners Work, So Does the System"

What a grand company logo, huh?

Thanks for posting additional info on these retards, IMHO this is part of FEMA's grand save America plan

Originally posted by Heyyo_yoyo

Greetings fellow Las Vegan !

Looks like ya found out about the great American slave trade... Here's another supporting thread on this very subject I authored awhile back:

So all you unemployed Americans... need a job?

"When the Prisoners Work, So Does the System"

What a grand company logo, huh?

Thanks for posting additional info on these retards, IMHO this is part of FEMA's grand save America plan

that was a good thread also ! viva Las Vegas !

I think FEMA is Definitely in league with the prison system.

both could easily be "joined" if and when.....

Originally posted by michaelmcclen
Prison is not supposed to be a holiday camp, diffrence between these prisioners and the jewish people of WWII is that these prisoners where convicted by jury of their peers and I for one hate to see my tax dollars go for them to sit around all day and play the system.

Make them all work, train them and give them skills they can apply outside prision.

edit on 30-6-2011 by michaelmcclen because: grammar

Couldn't have said it better, the only thing I would worry about is the quality of the product? I have seen these types in the section 8 housing project by my house, not much brains their, if you know what I mean?

Eight year olds working an assembly line in China at least get to go home and they probably make more money
You load 16 tons and what do you get..another day older and deeper in debt.
Talk about a corperate gold mine !!

reply to post by michaelmcclen


Yes... We should all grow up because you say so.

All of these systems are based on scarcity. and its abuse.

Abundance.

reply to post by xuenchen


Sachsenhausen, Auschwitz, Dachau, Gross-Rosen, Fort Breendonk (Belgium) & Theresienstadt were the concentration/death-camps/ghetto's that had this slogan in place.

"At Buchenwald, "Jedem das Seine" (literally, "to each his share", but idiomatically "everyone gets what he deserves") was used." (Wikipedia)

Just a little historical background. These places represent the very worst manifestations of human behaviour. Their existence in WW2 should serve as a reminder of the depths of depravity and evil to which mankind has sank at times throughout history.

I can say conclusively, that these types of persecution-camps are current and exist in parts of the world, not just the obvious Guantanamo - rather prisons that we don't even know about, that are not marked on maps - in countries like China, North Korea, all over the Middle-East and in parts of Africa and South America, the former Soviet Union and parts of Eastern Europe.

One conclusion to draw from this is simply that we have learned very little as a species over the last millennium. Although our technological advances have progressed and developed exponentially - our spiritual and moral development has been arrested in the tribalism and superstition of the middle-ages.

As a race, we really have not developed spiritually very far at all. Until we do, my guess is that not much will change.

I am so offended that you can even consider comparing this to what Hitler did to the Jewish people.

There is a big difference between murderers, drug dealers and peadophilles compared to innocent civillians that were tortured and killed, or do you see them as "equal"?

Originally posted by michaelmcclen
Prison is not supposed to be a holiday camp, diffrence between these prisioners and the jewish people of WWII is that these prisoners where convicted by jury of their peers and I for one hate to see my tax dollars go for them to sit around all day and play the system.

Make them all work, train them and give them skills they can apply outside prision.

Stop being an idealist. Look around at the world, almost nothing is ideal. I could support a labor option for legitimate inmates in which the goal is rehabilitation. However, in reality, corruption guarantees the following:

- Corporate incentive to have people in prison will mean more people will be put in prison unfairly
- Corporate incentive to have people in prison will mean people will be stuck in there longer

With the amount of corruption in our government & corporations, I predict allowing this would amount to a large, imprisoned, enslaved corporate workforce which will be added to for even trivial offenses (such as filming a police officer perhaps?)

reply to post by xuenchen


Addendum.

It is important to remember to compare like with like. Gulags, concentration & death camps, slave labour factories like those run by Krupps/Thyssen & IG Farben are not the same as federal prisoner labour. Like in the UK, prisoners are literally (most often) in prison as a matter of 'lifestyle choice'. Most broke the law, got caught & went to prison.

If I were a prisoner - I would want a job, not Roman style quarries, but any productive chore would do. So long as it passed the time.

To compare the situation for slave labour in WW2 nazi Europe to federal prisoner labour is not accurate or helpful, it obfuscates the issues surrounding prisoner treatment. In WW2, the prisoners were going to die most likely prematurely and in awful circumstances, crucially, they were INNOCENT people.

This is not true of European or US federal prisoners, unless they're unfortunate enough to live in a US state with the death penalty, and are convicted of a crime that carries that sentence. Obviously in the UK & Europe this capital-punishment death-sentence does not exist.

Corporations making vast profits from degrading abuse of people, be it prisoners or 'free' citizens is as old as the oldest corporations! Morally, I have far less problem with a convicted prisoner - rapist, murderer, thief, child-molester etc, etc doing any kind of labour for a corporation at their personal loss and the corporations' benefit and profit, than I do with sweat-shops, child-labour and wage-slavery and economic servitude, which IS truly abhorrent & should be the problem we are addressing!

You see, obviously, this is not a case of like for like...