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.
13th amendment
real hard to oppose forced labor in xinjiang when they can point to shit like this
World news hey…
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The goods these prisoners produce wind up in the supply chains of a dizzying array of products found in most American kitchens, from Frosted Flakes cereal and Ball Park hot dogs to Gold Medal flour, Coca-Cola and Riceland rice.
The AP sifted through thousands of pages of documents and spoke to more than 80 current or formerly incarcerated people, including men and women convicted of crimes that ranged from murder to shoplifting, writing bad checks, theft or other illegal acts linked to drug use.
Mammoth commodity traders that are essential to feeding the globe like Cargill, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus, Archer Daniels Midland and Consolidated Grain and Barge – which together post annual revenues of more than $400 billion – have in recent years scooped up millions of dollars’ worth of soy, corn and wheat straight from prisons, which compete with local farmers.
Pastorick said the department has transformed Angola from “the bloodiest prison in America” over the past several decades with “large-scale criminal justice reforms and reinvestment into the creation of rehabilitation, vocational and educational programs designed to help individuals better themselves and successfully return to communities.” He noted that pay rates are set by state statute.
In March 2020, though all other outside company jobs were halted, the Arizona corrections department announced about 140 women were being abruptly moved from their prison to a metal hangar-like warehouse on property owned by Hickman’s Family Farms, which pitches itself as the Southwest’s largest egg producer.
Though the company has since stopped using them, in recent years they were hired in Arizona by Taylor Farms, which sells salad kits in many major grocery stores nationwide and supplies popular fast-food chains and restaurants like Chipotle Mexican Grill.
The original article contains 4,930 words, the summary contains 284 words. Saved 94%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Slavery never ended here.
You do realize you have to first commit a crime to end up in prison?
Got caught smoking a joint? Slavery for you.
Pissed off a cop? Slavery for you, too.
I don’t think slavery being the punishment for crime is the defense you think you think it is. It’s fucking barbaric.
Oh yeah, and don’t try organizing for better conditions either. The leaders of the 2018 prison strike in the US were tortured via indefinite solitary confinement.
And by hidden we mean so brazenly open Nu-metal bands make songs about it
It’s not hidden. The slavery of convicts is literally written in our constitution.
Thirteenth Amendment:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
EDIT: Just to clarify; I believe that segment (in bold) should be removed from the 13th amendment.
