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This September 9, we may witness the largest prison strike in US history. Potentially thousands of inmates across both state and federal prisons in as many as 24 states plan to engage in a coordinated strike and protest in an attempt to bring attention to the daily injustice of their lives. The strikers are calling for an end to “slave-like” working conditions, illegal reprisals, and inhumane living conditions. Across the US, there are nearly 900,000 inmates who currently work in prisons. A number of states and federally run prisons also use inmate labor to manufacture marketable goods and services. Some of this labor is outsourced by private corporations, including:
 On Friday (Sept. 9) prison inmates across the US will participate in what organizers are touting as the “largest prison strike in history,” stopping work in protest of what many call a modern version of slavery. The protest, organized across 24 states, is spearheaded by the inmate-led Free Alabama Movement (FAM) and coordinated by the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), a branch of an international labor union. Its manifesto, published online by “prisoners across the United States,” reads: This is a call to end slavery in America…To every prisoner in every state and federal institution across this land, we call on you to stop being a slave, to let the crops rot in the plantation fields, to go on strike and cease reproducing the institutions of your confinement.  The strike will be held on the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison revolt, when prisoners took control of a maximum-security correctional facility near Buffalo, New York, demanding better conditions and an end to their brutal treatment. Today, nearly 900,000 US prisoners work while incarcerated. The Bureau of Prisons, which oversees all federal inmates requires that all prisoners (barring medical reasons) work. State prisoners are in the same boat; according to Eric Fink, a professor at Elon Law school, in all or nearly all US states prisoners must work. If they refuse, they can be punished with solitary confinement, revoking visitation, or other measures. Inmates receive very little pay for their labor—in federal prisons it ranges from $0.12 to $0.40 an hour. In some states, like Texas, those held at state prisons receive zero compensation. The majority of inmates work on prison maintenance and upkeep—cleaning, cooking, etc.—but approximately 80,000 do work for the outside world. Sometimes these jobs are the result of government contracts; other times, prisoners end up doing work for private companies such as Victoria’s Secret, Whole Foods or Walmart. Unlike other American workers, these prisoners are not protected by labor laws. They don’t have access to worker’s compensation, they get payed well below the minimum wage, and they cannot effectively form unions. Courts have ruled that because the relationship between prisons and inmates is not that of an employer and a worker, inmates don’t get these labor protections. According to The Nation, there is a faction among the organizers that would rather see prison labor abolished, but IWOC is pushing for inmates to unionize. “Prisoners are the most exploited labor class in this country,” says Azzurra Crispino, spokesperson for the organization. The moral case to let prisoners unionize and have the protections given to civilian workers is straightforward: forcing people to work is inhumane, as are the ridiculously low wages and often the labor conditions themselves. The economic case is much more complex. Prisons argue that paying inmates a minimum wage would bankrupt them—in fact, Alex Friedmann, an editor for Prison Legal News told The American Prospect that the criminal justice system would collapse without exploiting inmates. But prisons don’t exist in a bubble, their effects ripple across society. While economists have argued that prison labor in general has little potential to significantly add to the GDP, there are longer-term and broader effects to consider. Higher wages can help not only inmates, but their dependents in the outside world, who might avoid ending up on welfare having greater support. Cheap inmate labor may save money for prisons or corporations, but meaningful, decently-paid employment and job training could reduce recidivism and future crime. Ultimately, it’s the taxpayers who pay for most of the criminal justice system, and that means they are subsidizing cheap labor for big corporations instead of investing in reducing crime in the future. In addition to putting pressure on individual institutions, strike organizers are hoping to raise awareness among the public. “Nothing is preventing employers from paying prisoners a decent wage and offering benefits and after 300 years it’s pretty clear it isn’t going to happen on its own. No more than slavery was ended in this country because slave owners got enlightened,” said Paul Wright, editor of Prison Legal News and prisoner rights advocate. “Alas, there is no General Sherman coming to rescue and liberate America’s prison slaves.” Supplemental Sources
Post initially collated from: http://qz.com/777415/an-unprecedent...e-labor-system/ Ferdinand the Bull fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Sep 12, 2016 |
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Sep 9, 2016 15:56
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** reserved for cool memes and stuff **
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Sep 9, 2016 15:56
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https://supportprisonerresistance.noblogs.org/post/2016/09/09/holman-shutdown/ posted:From contact inside: “12:01 Sept 9th, all inmates at Holman Prison [Alabama] refused to report to their prison jobs without incident. With the rising of the sun came an eerie silence as the men at Holman laid on their racks reading or sleeping. Officers are performing all tasks.”
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Sep 9, 2016 16:52
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This is a surprisingly important week for labour conflicts, with this and the massive indian strikes going on. I hope it works out but everything's in favor of capital here.
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Sep 10, 2016 05:47
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Good. Forced labour in any circumstance is bullshit.
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Sep 10, 2016 09:21
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https://www.facebook.com/incarceratedworkers/posts/526009274257886quote:Demands from South Carolina Prisoners... Seems pretty reasonable to me.
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Sep 10, 2016 17:04
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This are some very good demands.
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Sep 11, 2016 04:37
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Thanks for the informative write up; it's...uhhh..."strange" that both this and th North Dakota protests are off everyone's radar. Reinstitute GED classes in South Carolina's prisons? Guessing there wasn't enough money in the first place or something...
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Sep 11, 2016 09:56
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http://www.maskmagazine.com/the-prisoner-issue/struggle/live-updates-prisoner-strikequote:8:38AM EST: Texas ItsGoingDown.org shared some words from Billy, a prisoner striking in Texas:
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Sep 12, 2016 00:49
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How did it go?
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Sep 12, 2016 13:14
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ohgodwhat posted:How did it go? It's still going on. Usually takes a week or so for something like this to happen. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of news, because of the nature of how prisons work. It's a lot of effort to smuggle out information from the tightly-controlled prisons. Good news is, there are a lot of different prisons that are in lockdown right now, which means the strike is still going on, and the authorities are scared. Bad news is, lots of men and women prisoners are probably getting abused over it.
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Sep 12, 2016 13:19
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There were some fires set in Michigan, but I'd take the story with a grain of salt. http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/09/11/kinross-correctional-facility-upper-peninsula/90222314/ I imagine that getting first person accounts from the inmates is going to take a while, and I'm not sure who might collect those stories.
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Sep 12, 2016 23:35
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I have first hand experience with the prison system in Colorado. I served out a two year sentence for heroin possession at Sterling Correctional Facility on the eastern high plains of Colorado. Just a stone's throw from Nebraska. Colorado's prison system is usually considered one of the "better" systems in the US, but inmates are still only paid about 70 cents a day for jobs that can be very physically demanding. I got lucky and got a job as a teacher's aide in an ESL class (college education, semi-fluent in Spanish), so back breaking physical labor wasn't part of my prison experience, but some of my friends would work 12 hours straight outdoors in the apocalyptically terrible north eastern Colorado winter (the wind, jesus christ) for six days a week. Refusing to go to work would result in being put in solitary, sometimes for 60 days or more. I can't imagine what the fellas have to deal with in the South, where the prison systems are much more draconian and generally hellacious.
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Sep 16, 2016 04:53
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Watch this poo poo be ignored because the democratic party can't be bothered with slaves. (not that republicans are any better but I have to say this or else I am the adolf). I stand by my assertion that if it costs a rich guy some money, it won't ever make it onto a party platform. Like gently caress, how can we support this without ending up in prison?
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Sep 16, 2016 07:04
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I once knew a guy named Old Uncle Satan. he was a house thief. He once said "I don't mind going to jail. At least I got a roof over my head." If you give these prisoners a decent wage, desperate people may start breaking the law just to go to jail and get a job, food, and a roof. ... Things are getting pretty hosed in 'Murka, man.
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Sep 16, 2016 08:30
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zimboe posted:I once knew a guy named Old Uncle Satan. he was a house thief. A lot of people would rather live and slave in jail than live a debasing life on the streets. That doesn't mean jails aren't horrendous, it just means living broke and poor and homeless during, say, winter is even worse.
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Sep 16, 2016 13:46
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Ferdinand the Bull posted:A lot of people would rather live and slave in jail than live a debasing life on the streets. That doesn't mean jails aren't horrendous, it just means living broke and poor and homeless during, say, winter is even worse. Maybe also we should make sure that living unemployed is at least slightly less horrendous than being in jail. Ideally this would be accomplished by strengthening the social safety net and whatnot, and not just making jail even worse until it's a push.
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Sep 16, 2016 14:14
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zimboe posted:I once knew a guy named Old Uncle Satan. he was a house thief. Maybe if there were some kind of system for people so that they could easily afford housing, food, medical care, etc. Like some kind of net underneath workers in case they fall, you know, a safety net but for society.
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Sep 16, 2016 14:26
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New article from The Intercept on the prison strike as it enters its second week. https://theintercept.com/2016/09/16/the-largest-prison-strike-in-u-s-history-enters-its-second-week/ quote:“There are probably 20,000 prisoners on strike right now, at least, which is the biggest prison strike in history, but the information is really sketchy and spotty,” said Ben Turk, who works on “in-reach” to prisons for the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, a chapter of the International Workers of the World union helping to coordinate the inmate-led initiative from the outside. quote:The information blackout is largely due to prison officials’ ample discretion in the details they choose to disclose. As the strikes began, reports emerged of several facilities being put on lockdown, some preemptively, but the only way for outsiders to get updates would be to call each facility and ask, usually getting no explanation about the reasons for a lockdown. Reports also emerged claiming that prison leaders in Virginia, Ohio, California and South Carolina were put on solitary confinement as a result of the strike, according to the Alabama supporters. Looks like the prison guards are getting nervous.
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Sep 16, 2016 15:46
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Not really, no. Nobody knows about this and when it comes to strikes that's sorta the whole point. Nothing is going to happen without outside pressure which is non existent at the moment.
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Sep 16, 2016 16:50
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Strikes work because they attack capital, that labour isn't being done and it's costing someone, somewhere, money. It will keep doing so until the prisoners go back to work, or until whoever normally buys the prison labour goes elsewhere, which will cost the prison money. So, the prison is under pressure to resolve the strike. As you can't exactly bring in scab labour, and are obligated to keep feeding and housing the prisoners, it's actually a potentially quite effective environment for a strike, as long as the prisons can't break the prisoners' solidarity themselves. OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Sep 16, 2016 |
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Sep 16, 2016 17:34
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So how are they going to strike exactly. are they just going to refuse to work or are some going to try to take over prisons/hostages like attica then turn into a shitstorm/bloodbath? If its peaceful thats awsome and i hope the best for them.
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Sep 17, 2016 02:15
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Dapper_Swindler posted:So how are they going to strike exactly. are they just going to refuse to work or are some going to try to take over prisons/hostages like attica then turn into a shitstorm/bloodbath? If its peaceful thats awsome and i hope the best for them. Mostly the former. Prison riots are a totally different bag that tend to be caused by other things. They also end badly for the most part. This however has the potential to lead to riots as the situation is pretty tense.
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Sep 18, 2016 04:46
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Dapper_Swindler posted:So how are they going to strike exactly. are they just going to refuse to work or are some going to try to take over prisons/hostages like attica then turn into a shitstorm/bloodbath? If its peaceful thats awsome and i hope the best for them. They're just going to stay in their cells rather than go to work.
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Sep 18, 2016 04:52
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Dapper_Swindler posted:So how are they going to strike exactly. are they just going to refuse to work or are some going to try to take over prisons/hostages like attica then turn into a shitstorm/bloodbath? If its peaceful thats awsome and i hope the best for them. Strikes and riots are two different things
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Sep 18, 2016 14:00
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Is this still ongoing? I meant to follow this as it happened and completely forgot (something that's a nice luxury to have, considering).
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Sep 19, 2016 01:57
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It's still ongoing but there isn't much to follow, since news doesn't get out much.
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Sep 19, 2016 02:12
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At the minute there is a lot of he-said-she-said, prisoner organisations are saying the strikes are still ongoing, guard organisations in a lot of states are saying the strikes are now over. Not a lot of information to back either side up. In addition there are concerns that prison guards are orchestrating reprisals on involved prisoners but again, not a lot of information is coming out. One thing on the whole "how does this strike hurt the prisons" - in several states the prisons use prisoner labour to perform things like maintenance & menial tasks (cooking, cleaning) on the prison itself, not just as industrial workers. So the prisons are having to hire people and bring them in, since they are reliant on prisoner labour to actually keep the places running, which is going to be taking money directly out of the prison's budget and hopefully put more pressure on the people running the show to relent.
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Sep 19, 2016 11:11
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MikeCrotch posted:So the prisons are having to hire people and bring them in, since they are reliant on prisoner labour to actually keep the places running, which is going to be taking money directly out of the prison's budget and hopefully put more pressure on the people running the show to relent. I'm pretty sure what we're going to see here is numerous unrelated violent crackdowns from guards at multiple prisons. Slowly enough, word will trickle out of the abuses that the prisoners are taking, enough for people on the outside to start talking. I give it a month or so from now til the clickbait contigent starts seeing enough stories of abuse on facebook and reddit to start beginning to care.
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Sep 19, 2016 13:29
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Maybe if you don't want to be treated like a prisoner you shouldn't commit crimes.
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Sep 19, 2016 13:38
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Nobody outside of dopesmoking socialists like us cares that much about prisoners being abused, let's face it. People will hear of the abuses without any context and just shrug or worse, consider the beatings well deserved.
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Sep 19, 2016 13:41
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NSW_greens posted:Maybe if you don't want to be treated like a prisoner you shouldn't commit crimes. 
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Sep 19, 2016 13:50
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NSW_greens posted:Maybe if you don't want to be treated like a prisoner you shouldn't commit crimes. If you're being facetious, turn to page 16. If you're serious, turn to page 347. page 16 This is why I don't bring up prisoner's rights with anyone in real life. The "don't crime if you can't time" argument enrages me. Disgusting. page 347 Fascist. Get the gently caress out of here, and also anywhere. page 348 Ron Weasely brushes your hair out of your face and tucks it behind your ear, the tip of his Death Eater tattoo peaking its serpent's head out of his baggy jumper sleeve. His freckles narrow and flatten as he smiles. Then he sets a finger under your chin, lifts it, and kisses you gently. YOu struggle, but the strips of torn bedsheet will not break. If you're into this, turn to page 11. If you think prisoners shouldn't do the time if they can't do the crime, turn to page 347.
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Sep 19, 2016 14:37
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Trying to turn to page 11 but the pages are stuck together
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Sep 19, 2016 15:16
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Ragnar34 posted:If you're being facetious, turn to page 16. I feel like more troll argument s need this kind of response. Sorry about page 11...
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Sep 19, 2016 16:39
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As long as prisoners aren't being raped/tortured etc I am 100% serious when I say I honestly don't give a poo poo if they're made to work. They're rapists, murders, thieves, drug dealers, and other undesirables. Prison isn't supposed to be a holiday camp. There isn't widespread outrage because this view isn't exactly radical.
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Sep 19, 2016 17:04
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The use of prison labor has a bad effect on free labor because free has trouble competing with slavery in a lot of fields. Its better for people on the outside not to have to compete with .10 an hour.
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Sep 19, 2016 17:08
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NSW_greens posted:As long as prisoners aren't being raped/tortured etc I am 100% serious when I say I honestly don't give a poo poo if they're made to work. They're rapists, murders, thieves, drug dealers, and other undesirables. Prison isn't supposed to be a holiday camp. You can just go ahead and type out "untermensch", you don't have to veil it with "undesirable". Nobody here is going to fall for that dogwhistle.
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Sep 19, 2016 17:10
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NSW_greens posted:As long as prisoners aren't being raped/tortured etc I am 100% serious when I say I honestly don't give a poo poo if they're made to work. They're rapists, murders, thieves, drug dealers, and other undesirables. Prison isn't supposed to be a holiday camp. What's your take on the racial disparity in the makeup of the US prison population? Do you think people deserve to be made to work on pain of physical violence in any other circumstance? Do you think nonviolent drug users deserve this treatment? Do you think it's acceptable that private prisons lobby governments at the state and federal level to enforce harsher and harsher sentences to sustain a for-profit prison industry? Do you consider it reasonable that manufacturing jobs that could have been done by citizens who are now instead undercut and unemployed and on the breadline are performed by prison labour for a pittance?
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Sep 19, 2016 17:17
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Fried Watermelon posted:Trying to turn to page 11 but the pages are stuck together Every time I loan out my political treatise ring binder it comes back noticeably heavier  NSW_greens posted:As long as prisoners aren't being raped/tortured etc I am 100% serious when I say I honestly don't give a poo poo if they're made to work. They're rapists, murders, thieves, drug dealers, and other undesirables. Prison isn't supposed to be a holiday camp. http://truth-out.org/archive/component/k2/item/79840:slavery-haunts-americas-plantation-prisons
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Sep 19, 2016 17:20
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