No state has a longer, more profit-driven history of contracting prisoners out to private companies than Alabama. With a sprawling labor system that dates back more than 150 years — including the brutal convict leasing era that replaced slavery — it has constructed a template for the commercialization of mass incarceration.

Most jobs are inside facilities, where the state’s inmates — who are disproportionately Black — can be sentenced to hard labor and forced to work for free doing everything from mopping floors to laundry. But more than 10,000 inmates have logged a combined 17 million work hours outside Alabama’s prison walls since 2018, for entities like city and county governments and businesses that range from major car-part manufacturers and meat-processing plants to distribution centers for major retailers like Walmart, the AP determined.

https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-alabama-3b2c7e414c681ba545dc1d0ad30bfaf5

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    It’s legal per the 13th Amendment.

    Doesn’t make it right, and it says a lot about how little both parties value human rights that it’s allowed to stand.

      • SmilingSolaris@lemmy.world
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        26 minutes ago

        Cmon buddy. I get that the “both sides” argument is lame and tired when it comes to things like abortion and women’s rights but this is a perfect example of it being true. I know you identifying as a Democrat believe that they couldn’t possibly support slavery but they do. Slavery as punishment for a crime is universal in American politics as a policy neither side would ever go against. This is a real example of capitalism triumphing over morals that is prevalent in neo liberalism. The first step to making sure your party is better is to acknowledge that they ain’t being better when its pointed out. Aka, don’t defend the slavers

    • pivot_root@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      Oh, that’s nothing. Ever wonder who tough on crime legislation actually benefits, and who’s lobbying for it?

    • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      22 hours ago

      Government: "WELL ACHSHUALLY, They aren’t slaves because they consented…

      under the threat of 23 hour solitary confinement with zero amenities and nothing to do and shitty food and absolute boredom, and practically psychological torture"