Many prisoners clean toilets and prep food with no pay – as the state charges $50 a day for their incarceration

Many prisoners clean toilets and prep food with no pay – as the state charges $50 a day for their incarceration

A $9bn food services company is using prisoners to make meals for other prisoners that can cost up to $30 – but it’s not paying them.

Food service provider Aramark runs a prison program called In2Work  that hasn’t been paying prisoners for the work they’ve been doing for the company. The work includes making premium meals that family and friends can purchase for their loved ones in prison.

Julius Smith, 36, who entered the Florida state prison system at the age of 18 in 2008, said the state of affairs was all to common. “If we don’t do the work, then the prison does not operate,” said Smith, who is currently imprisoned in Florida. “I feel like people who go to prison should be paid like other people in states where they work. If inmates got paid, they could take care of themselves instead of resorting to extreme measures to get the things they need,” he said.

  • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
    3·
    5 months ago

    Forced labor is not exclusive to private prison facilities.

    Our nation incarcerates more than 1.2 million people in state and federal prisons, and two out of three of these incarcerated people are also workers. In most instances, the jobs these nearly 800,000 incarcerated workers have look similar to those of millions of people working on the outside. But there are two crucial differences: Incarcerated workers are under the complete control of their employers, and they have been stripped of even the most minimal protections against labor exploitation and abuse.

    https://www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/captive-labor-exploitation-of-incarcerated-workers

    The primary “benefit” is to drive corporate food profits for shareholders.

    The reporters found that prison labor is part of the supply chain of companies spanning across nearly the entire food industry, including grocers like Aldi, Costco, Kroger, Target, Walmart, and Whole Foods; restaurant companies like Burger King, Chipotle, Domino’s and McDonald’s; and industry conglomerates like Cargill, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Pepsi and Tyson, which together own such a large variety of brands that they are nearly impossible to avoid in retail settings.

    https://truthout.org/articles/major-brands-like-mcdonalds-kroger-and-coca-cola-linked-to-forced-prison-labor/