Their happy face on prison labor

The article entitled "Enlisting Prison Labor to Close Budget Gaps," by Robbie Brown and Kim Severson, published on February 24, 2011, by the New York Times, depicts a false and dangerous image of inmate labor in the U.S. The article presents a series of quotes by various sources and a vignette of prison field labor at a Florida farm, most of which seem to be used as arguments in support of the practice. Nowhere in the 1,255-word piece did the writers evoke even the possibility that forcing prisoners to work for no pay or pennies per hour might be exploitative, let alone a massive human rights violation...

Prison labor is slavery by definition under the U.S. Constitution. The 13th Amendment states that "either 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..."

WE REJECT attempts like this one to put a happy face on inmate labor, which we find similar to antebellum writings defending slavery. Note the bucolic terms in which a pro-slavery novel published in 1852 describes an enslaved African's living quarters: "It had, besides the vegetable plot in the rear, a neat little flower garden in front, where Aunt Vi'let, his wife, delighted to cultivate certain favorite gaudy plants."

Compare this excerpt to the opening line of the February 24 article:

Before he went to jail, Danny Ivey had barely seen a backyard garden. But here he was, two years left on his sentence for grand theft, bent over in a field, snapping wide, green collard leaves from their stems. For the rest of the week, Mr. Ivey and his fellow inmates would be eating the greens he picked. So enamored are the writers of this article of the idea of putting prisoners to work in the fields, they actually assert that inmates with plantation experience gain "marketable skills as fieldworkers..."

http://www.www.socialistworker.org/2011/05/09/happy-face-on-prison-labor

It's disgusting that we still use slave labor in this country. It would be one thing if they were all growing crops to be eaten within the prison (while protected by proper safety standards, etc.) Earning one's keep doesn't sound completely evil to me. But it's a whole separate issue when there's forced labor for someone's profit. That's just disgusting.