Slave labor in our prisons today
IN RESPONSE to "Their happy face on prison labor": I am a prison industry consultant/researcher who has been addressing the same issue of exploiting prisoners for their labor. I have been researching, investigating and writing on this subject since 2003, and I agree with the statements you've made regarding the New York Times article.
Since the early 1980s, privatization of prisons and prison industries have been applauded and held up as a "cure-all" for crime and rehabilitation in the U.S.
The Federal Prison Industries Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP) run by the Department of Justice is a terrible program now being used by corporations to gain free access to what constitutes nothing more than slave labor.
It's bad enough that this is happening, but the fact that it is authorized, overseen and promoted by the U.S. Department of Justice is offensive and unbelievable.
Here is a link to the recruiting video put out by the sham National Correctional Industries Association (NCIA). NCIA is made up of all the state prison industries, corporations using the inmate's labor, and companies providing raw materials to them. The video is an attempt to recruit businesses to close operations in the private sector and move them into prisons where "highly skilled and motivated prisoners" will provide labor at a wage that allows increased profits.
Once you look at this program and the video, you will fully understand how conservatives have created a huge captive workforce of over 2 million people.
They work these men and women to bring in the profits, which are then used in part to fund attacks against public-sector workers, unions and the wages of non-public-sector workers. Their intent is to drive down wages to a point equal to what they now pay foreign workers for their labor.
The current attacks on public-sector workers are due to the availability of inmates to take their places for a fraction of the costs. It may be cost-saving to those government operations, but it is morally and ethically bankrupting our society. Thanks for addressing this article and the concept it supports.
Bob Sloan, Indiana
