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Prison Labor

F. Cadavid, S. Dunbar, E. Santiana, and A. Trivison

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Listen to our team’s podcast below! You can also access a transcript of the podcast here and read our team’s letters to Senator Perry and Representative Wesley here.

Introduction

While exploring the violations of basic rights that exist in prison labor, it is essential to understand how deeply-rooted such violations are in the American prison system at large. Deplorable conditions in prisons push workers into labor programs in efforts to temporarily escape this environment. However, these programs do not offer much solace, and not all prisoners have the opportunity to make a conscious choice to join the labor programs; they are often forced or coerced into the programs without their consent. These labor programs give laborers an unlivable wage, force them into dangerous working conditions, and offer little opportunity for personal and professional development. The prison labor system must be reformed and restructured. There is untapped potential for the inmates in this system to grow and flourish if they are given access to a transparent and equitable labor program.


Labor Conditions

(Sawyer, 2017)

(Sawyer, 2017)

Labor and working conditions are far less than ideal for prison laborers upon whose backs the current economic climate was built. The average minimum wage across the entire United States is $7.25 (U.S. Department of Labor). However, this is not the full picture. Laborers sourced from the prison system do not enjoy the same wages as other Americans. For example, as shown in the graphic on the right, the average hourly wage for Floridian prison laborers is between 20 cents and 55 cents per hour, if they are even paid at all (Sawyer 2017).

These wages are nowhere near sufficient to be livable. The living wage for a family of four in the United States is $16.54 per hour (Nadeau 2020). This is more than double the average minimum wage in the US. For prison laborers, the difference is far more stark. The living wage in the US is between 30 and 83 times higher than the wages that prison laborers actually receive.

(Couloute and Kopf, 2018)

(Couloute and Kopf, 2018)

There are many consequences that result from these devastatingly low wages for prison laborers. People with felony convictions are typically ineligible for government benefits, such as welfare, food stamps, access to stable housing, and access to employment. Prison wages can aggravate these issues, because the low wages lead to a lack of savings to be able to afford the costs of food, housing, healthcare, transportation, child support, and supervision fees upon release.

The jobs that prison laborers are often forced into are not skilled jobs. These jobs often teach incarcerated individuals few to no skills that would be relevant in the outside labor market. The consequence of this is that they do not qualify for jobs upon release and often end up unemployed. As shown in the graphic to the left, across all race and gender lines, the average rate of unemployment is approximately 30% after release from the prison system  (Moritz-Rabson et al. 2018).

Equitable Treatment and Benefits

Currently, prison laborers are not protected under the United States Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and therefore do not have the guarantee of safe working environments (Eisen 2020).  In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR), formerly incarcerated Dominique Morgan reveals that because prison laborers do not qualify for the Workers’ Compensation Act, they do not receive paid sick days and are not allowed to miss work.  Morgan recalls that refusing work would result in a rule violation.  In extreme cases, prolonged absence could result in solitary confinement (Garcia 2021).  Access to employment and other benefits would create an enriching experience for incarcerated folks and could even lead to better prospects post-incarceration. 

Prison labor can also be beneficial to prisoners because it reduces recidivism. At the start of the century, about 68 percent of formerly incarcerated individuals were rearrested within 3 years out of prison and this number remains the same today (Davis 2019).  However, Post-Release Employment Project (PREP) participants in halfway houses were 24 percent more likely to get full-time employment versus non-employed prisoners (Reynolds 1997). 

Our Proposal

Abolitionists characterize prison labor as modern-day slavery due to its disproportionate exploitation of minority inmates for cheap/free labor, often under inhumane conditions. Despite this, there are still inmates that support the use of their labor by public and private industries.  Chandra Bozelko, a former inmate turned author, believes that “most of the criticism lobbed at prison labor ... is unfair, and even counterproductive in the effort to reform the justice system” (Bozelko 2017, 1).  She, along with other pro-labor advocates, argues that prison labor can benefit inmates by giving them better opportunities upon release. UNICOR, the federal inmate employment program, highlights that prison labor can provide an “opportunity to learn a marketable skill and gain valuable work experience that will substantially enhance [an inmate’s] ability to successfully reintegrate into society following [their] release from prison”—a claim that is supported by high employment rates in prison-job pipeline programs in various states, including Florida (UNICOR n.d, 1; Shemkus 2015).

Bozelko’s perspective, among others, changed our team’s opinion on prison labor; initially we advocated for its abolition, but now we are endorsing its reformation. Reflecting the sentiments of Paul Wright, “the executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center...and a former prisoner,” inmates must have the right to unionize, have safe working conditions, be paid minimum wage, and be allowed to keep their earnings if the system is going to be effectively reformed (Shemkus 2015, 1). Labor should also be voluntary and entered without coercion or risk of punishment. Transparency in the system—in which prisons list all private and public beneficiaries of prison labor, numbers of working inmates, racial demographics, length of employment, pay, and additional information—is also necessary for accountability.

Specifically our group recommends the establishment of mandatory prison-employment pipeline programs. Legislation should require private businesses and public agencies that utilize prison labor to provide (at least minimum wage) employment options to inmates (that worked for them while incarcerated) upon their release.

  

Cited Sources

Addtional Sources