Leave it to capitalism to find a way to make a profit from someone else's misery. In the United States, more than 2 million of our friends, neighbours and relatives are in state and federal prisons. The prison-industrial complex, as it is called by some activists, is a "new" form of slavery with a twist — it is highly profitable.
I call it "new" advisedly because chattel slavery in the early days of the US also had a profit motive, but today's slavery is corporate slavery run by some of the biggest businesses in the country. Its motive is to take a mass prison population of poor people and to make money by: charging rent and fees for being in jail; allowing privately owned prisons; setting up prison corporations to compete with "free" labour; and exploiting prison labour in "factories behind fences".
Encouraged by the right-wing (anti-crime) political agenda of the Republican and Democratic parties, more and more prisoners have been preyed upon by a vindictive public, egged on by the greedy politicians. For years, the masses of people have been told that prisoners are being coddled and treated better than the average worker outside.
These are poor people, many of whom committed crimes in the first place because they could not pay their own rent, let alone pay the state's rent while in prison. It's a foolish idea and is even more punitive than the politicians called for, but they were quick to latch on to it.
The idea of creating a private corporation to run the prison system began in 1980 with the Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America. After taking over the Hamilton County, Tennessee, workhouse under its first contract in 1981, CCA has spread to 32 states and several other countries. It trades on the New York and US stock exchanges, and has made its investors billions of dollars in profits.
CCA takes over a prison or series of prisons, promising local government and state officials that it can save substantial amounts of money by running the prison as an efficient "business". This has yet to be proven, even though it slashes the wages of prison guards and cuts expenditure for prisoners' food, medicine and other supplies.
The conditions for the people inside worsen drastically when a private company takes over. Ten people have died at the Silverdale workhouse outside Chattanooga, Tennessee, since CCA took it over. Similar atrocities have befallen CCA facilities all over the country. There have been beatings and deaths of prisoners, escapes, riots and strikes.
Smelling money, other corporations, especially CCA's main competitor, Wackenhut Correctional Services, have entered the fray like sharks feeding on a bloody carcass. The contracts shared between the corporations are worth US$4 billion.
Another pillar of the prison-industrial complex is the prison industrial corporations such as UNICOR, run by Federal Prison Industries. UNICOR, based in almost all federal prisons, makes everything from guided missile parts to clothing and furniture for the military and federal agencies.
It makes $100-500 million in sales and $30-$50 million in profits each year. In contrast, the prisoners make about $1-2 per hour.
For years, federal law forbade prison workers from competing with free labour, but this has now been changed. Prison labour is being used to not only undermine free labour but drive companies out of business. The state prisons have now formed similar companies to run their prison businesses.
Finally, "factories behind fences", in which a company is allowed to hire or rent a team of prisoners, is becoming common. Some of the largest US companies — Microsoft, TWA, Sears Roebuck and others — are using prisoners as customer service agents, seamstresses, airline reservation agents, assemblers and other workers. This even includes the creation of unique brands of prison products, such as "Prison Blues" denim jeans, made exclusively in prison workshops.
This slave labour has not been vehemently objected to by organised labour, civil rights groups or prisoners' rights organisations, although a number of exposes have been done by the radical press. An effective coalition must be built before it will stop.
The upshot of all this is that slavery (the 13th amendment to the US constitution allegedly outlaws slavery "except for commission of a crime") is permitted because the slaves do not belong to a plantation owner, but to the state. They are just "rented" to capitalist corporations.
Although prison slavery must be ended entirely, prisoners' rights activists, civil libertarians and the African-American community must also demand that prisoners be given the same rights as workers outside: coverage by occupational health and safety regulations, the right to organise in trade unions and not to be exploited by keepers with their eyes on a fast buck. They should be paid the same wage as workers on the outside.
Ultimately, the outright abolition of prisons, or at least a moratorium on the building of prisons, has to be fought for.
BY LORENZO KOMBOA ERVIN
[Abridged.]