Takeaways from the AP's investigation into how US prison labor supports many popular food brands

[Omaha Steve]

By MARGIE MASON and ROBIN MCDOWELL
Updated 10:26 AM CST, January 29, 2024

In a sweeping two-year investigation, The Associated Press found goods linked to U.S. prisoners wind up in the supply chains of a dizzying array of products from Frosted Flakes cereal and Ball Park hot dogs to Gold Medal flour and Coca-Cola. They are on the shelves of most supermarkets, including Kroger, Target, Aldi and Whole Foods.

PEOPLE OF COLOR DISPRORTIONATELY AFFECTED

The U.S. has a history of locking up more people than any other country – currently around 2 million – and goods tied to prison labor have morphed into a massive multibillion-dollar empire, extending far beyond the classic images of people stamping license plates or working on road crews.

The prisoners who help produce these goods are disproportionately people of color. Some are sentenced to hard labor and forced to work – or face punishment – and are sometimes paid pennies an hour or nothing at all. They are often excluded from protections guaranteed to almost all other full-time workers, even when they are seriously injured or killed on the job. And it can be almost impossible for them to sue.

And it’s all legal, dating back largely to labor demands as the South struggled to rebuild its shattered economy after the Civil War. In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawed slavery and involuntary labor– except as punishment for a crime. That clause is being challenged on the federal level, and efforts to remove similar language from state constitutions are expected to reach the ballot in about a dozen states this year.

FULL story: https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-investigation-takeaways-5debda3b0222c5c7de8b8a485084f206

[bucolic_frolic]

1. When workers are entitled to the fruits of their labor, forced babymaking will be a known occupation

forced upon unwilling mothers by the state and entitled to recompense. THAT should get Republicans attention.

[duhneece]

2. My son, a federal inmate, was cost accountant for goods bought by US military, defense contractors

He said in all honesty, of course we can produce the goods more cheaply than any company could. We pay inmates pennies on the dollar, with, as someone mentioned, no workers’ compensation, little or no training

[AllaN01Bear]

3. prison labour has been equated to slavery for a very long time .

many of us do not remember the chain gangs that built roads , etc.


https://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/chain-gangs/
A wide variety of companies such as Whole Foods, McDonald's, Target, IBM, Texas Instruments, Boeing, Nordstrom, Intel, Wal-Mart, Victoria's Secret, Aramark, AT&T, BP, Starbucks, Microsoft, Nike, Honda, Macy's and Sprint and many more actively participated in prison in-sourcing throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

[live love laugh]

8. It's not equated to slave labor it is slave labor. Black History Month should be spent repealing this law.

[Farmer-Rick]

4. Prison labor is slavery

There is no way average workers can compete with this free labor. The government covers the prisoner's food and board. Tax payers pay for the prisoner's clothes and health care. The corporations need do nothing for these prisoners and get all the labor they want for free.

These corporations can out perform their competition because they get free labor. This is a slave economy competing with capitalism.

China does this too, that is why a lot of their products are so cheap.

Since we have already taken away a woman's right to bodily autonomy the next thing will be to force prisoners to give up their body parts if their organs are a match for a filthy-rich man on a donor's list. China and Russia do this too.

So much for capitalism. Are we now a slave economy?

[Joinfortmill]

5. The greed never ends

[SouthernDem4ever]

6. Has anyone ever received a telemarketing call from a prisoner?

I don't know if they are still doing this but I remember getting a guy calling to sell magazines acting like Moose and Rocco telling me to buy them or else. Then I heard it reported prisoners were being used.

[1WorldHope]

7. No wonder the great white ariens are so afraid of the truth being told.

There is just so little about our history of "winning" that doesn't include cruelty and cheating.