Prisoners in the US are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands
Unmarked trucks packed with prison-raised cattle roll out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where men are sentenced to hard labor and forced to work, for pennies an hour or sometimes nothing at all. After rumbling down a country road to an auction house, the cows are bought by a local rancher and then followed by The Associated Press another 600 miles to a Texas slaughterhouse that feeds into the supply chains of giants like McDonald’s, Walmart and Cargill…
It is fucking insane we’re productively using prison labor. Prison should be focused on rehabilitation, adding a profit motive just perverts incentives.
I realize there are like a dozen other things insanely wrong with US prisons - and I don’t mean to minimize any of those.