Why do prisons exist? There are more than 6,000 carceral institutions in the U.S. that hold almost 2 million human beings. There are three typical answers to this question: Segregation, Punishment, and Rehabilitation. Either people are in jail because they are too dangerous for society, they need to pay for their crimes, or they need to meaningfully change some aspect of themselves. Since the end of non-governmental slavery in the U.S, the prison system has not only focused almost solely on the segregation of black men and re-enslaving them.
On December 6, 1865 the state of Georgia ended chattel slavery in the United States by ratifying the 13th amendment. The 43 simple words fundamentally changed the way in which the U.S. functions. Approximately four million individuals were freed from slavery overnight.
This was the story that I and many other Americans were taught in our American history class. But the 13th amendment didn’t end slavery; it shifted the blame for who is responsible. The amendment specifically carved out slavery as a condition of the punishment of a crime as permissible. Today, there are nearly 1.2 million incarcerated people in the United States today and approximately 2/3 of them provide slave labor. The term slave labor is important here because even in instances in which the workers are being paid the average wage is less than $1.50 an hour. Prisoners and then forced to spend their depressed wages to buy daily necessities.
Prison labor was popularized in America immediately after the Civil War as a method of replacing the slave labor the south had lost. Southern Lawmakers had to find a way to fill the vacancies left by newly freed slaves. The Black Codes, which were separate and incredibly harsh legal statutes dictating the everyday life of Black people, made it almost impossible for Black men especially to not violate them. The Black Codes made it more difficult for the newly free Black population to find work and then criminalized the activities they would engage in because they were unable to find work. These codes imposed harsh punishments for seemingly minor offenses. Vagrancy laws some states used to criminalize the simple existence of Black individuals who were unemployed and unhoused while making work and lodging unattainable. Vagrancy laws were on the books in states, like Mississippi, until the court case Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville ruled the practice unconstitutional in 1972. Prison began appearing on former plantations and brought with it a new, often more deadly kind of slavery.
Today, there are nearly 800,000 incarcerated workers in the US today and 80% of them are working to keep their prisons running. Maintenance labor, which focuses on prison upkeep through work like food preparation, laundry, grounds keeping and other tasks, are needed to keep prisons running and often serve an important dual purpose for prisons. It keeps the prisoners tired, docile, and busy as well as lowering the cost to run prisons. This practice is the standard in prisons in the U.S. between 90% and 95% of prisons use prisoners for this purpose. Prisons in the U.S. couldn’t continue to function without the slave labor of those they incarcerated.
Despite working long hours in unsafe conditions, prisoners that are compensated for their labor receive pennies for hours of labor. The average prisoner makes between $0.14 and $1.41 an hour. Despite rising costs and markups for the goods they are able to purchase, prisons are making less now than they did 25 years ago. The average of the lowest daily wage that prisoners receive has fallen $0.07 since 2001, and that’s if the prisoners are paid at all. Prisons in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and South Carolina don’t pay prisoners for the labor they perform, and in many prisons in which workers are paid, their pitiful wages are often garnished by the state.
One particularly striking example of the inhumane conditions that prisoners are forced to labor in is the Angola Prison Rodeo of Louisiana. This rodeo features prisoners competing in events like “convict poker” in which 4 prisoners sit at a table and are charged by a bull. The last one standing wins the game. This incredibly brutal practice harkens back to the coliseum of Ancient Rome. In one incident, Donald Cook broke 7 ribs and had his lung collapse after being hit by a bull. If this practice wasn’t morally corrupt enough, prison officials were caught misusing the proceeds.
The labor that prisoners are performing is unsafe, and underpaid, yet even those that make wages from their labor are forced to participate. Being in prison is expensive for incarcerated individuals. The basic necessities prisoners are forced to pay for are often overpriced and lower quality. Prisoners are responsible often for toiletries, calls, medication, and food. Prisoners are forced to pay more for worse goods and services while a portion of their minimal wages are taken by the prisons they are forced to keep running.
If you are a student at UMD you have sat in furniture made by incarcerated workers. UMD paid MCE, Maryland Correctional Enterprises, more than eight and half million dollars. Despite student protests, UMD continues to use MCE as a supplier. You are the beneficiary of the exploitation of those our justice system has deemed in need of incineration.
Even outside of the slavery our carceral system perpetuates, prisoners face dehumanizing conditions writ large. One third of inmates with chronic mental illnesses that are housed in state institutions do not receive treatment. Inmates with developmental and/or intellectual disabilities, more than 20% of the prison population, are sometimes even used for the enjoyment of COs. In videos that recently surfaced from Rankin County Jail, COs used an electrified vest to shock an inmate for their own amusement. A piece by Mississippi today details other abuses that this inmate suffered during his time in prison. If COs are recording themselves utilizing this level of force on inmates and terrorizing them in this way, what are they doing when the cameras are off?
The U.S. carceral system is not broken, nor has it not been co-opted or changed from its noble beginnings. The system is operating as intended and as it has for decades. More than almost 2 million people wake up behind bars every morning in local, state and federal institutions. Each of them deserve better and deserve to live in a more just society.
