23 Cents an Hour? The Perfectly Legal Slavery Happening in Modern Day America
 

If you thought slavery was outlawed in America, you would be wrong. The 13th amendment to the Constitution states that "...Neither 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 ? ."

In plain language what that means is slavery in America can still exist for those who are in a prison, where you basically lose all of your rights. (You don?t gain a lot of your rights back when you get out of prison, either, but that is a different story.) So, given the country?s penchant for rapacious capitalism, it may not come as a surprise that there is much of the American prison system that exploits American prisoners much like slaves.

In fact there is large scale exploitation in American prisons which benefit American corporations and the military?industrial complex.


Perhaps you are not familiar with UNICOR, better known as Federal Prison Industries? It?s a federal government-owned corporation that employs inmates, for as little as 23 cents per hour, to provide a wide range of products and services under the guise of a ?jobs training program? that in theory is supposed to give inmates skills that will prepare them for the workforce upon release.

Continued 23 Cents an Hour? The Perfectly Legal Slavery Happening in Modern Day America | Alternet

If companies were allowed to pay prison labor less than minimum wage - let's say $6 p/hour (for example), but the prisoners were allowed to keep 1/2 of that money for when they got out, there may be some middle ground where a win-win may be found.

Maybe teaching prisoners skills for when they got out would be helpful to society in general. Maybe the prisoners having to spend 50% of their income on room and board would reduce the taxpayers burden on the system. Maybe the people who get out with earnings in their account would not be so desperate, and would be less likely to turn back to crime. Who knows...

All that is certain is, the way the "for-profit-corporate-run-prison-system" is set up now, is not acceptable.

How about someone re-emburses the taxpayers who are out for housing/feeding/guarding these fucks.

+1 :thumbsup

:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup:thum bsup:thumbsup

Damn right man everyone talks about government funding this or that, government bailouts, government loans...and on and on but what they dont talk about is that the government has no money, the government money the speak of is your money, my money and everyone else our government points a gun to their head and says give me the money I tell you to or I will take it by force.

Then you have private industry that makes a lot of money by selling services to the"government" services like jails.....and guess what they have lots and lots of lobbyists spending lots and lots of money to purchase our elected officials

People are starting to wake up to this....look at the surge in popularity of Bernie Sanders....sadly I am afraid theres enough money..money that is rightfully yours and mine, to kill the light being shined into these corners....damned shame.
I seem to recal reading that there are 700 registered lobbyists in DC for every lawmaker.....what does THAT tell you?

Instead of witholding taxes from American paychecks I have long thought people should have to write a check to the government...I bet we would hold our elected officials MUCH more accountable for how they spend our money....OK rant over

Did you miss the part where it says, "except as a punishment for crime..." ?

And you don't lose all of your rights in prison, that's false.

Because they would never get their money :2 cents:

I write them a check quarterly now on my ''self employment (and other) income'' but would the average worker set aside part of his paycheck for the US government to spend?

That's why the VAT Tax is so much in the EU they finance the government with a consumption tax in addition to other revenues.

If the US government didn't withhold income and FICA taxes at the source (W-2 wages) -- 70% would not pay and the federal prisons would be summer camps for tax evaders.

I figured this topic would be about Amazon's Mturk workforce..

I thought that too.

Have you ever used that service for grunt work?

So are they forced to work? Plus - it is punishment for the crime, not just taking any citizen and forcing him to work.

I think its ok, its not like they are taking an average Joe. Im willing to bet some of those prisoners actually enjoy doing it instead of not seeing the outside world.

+1 :thumbsup could also throw in victim repayment

they are lucky to get that :2 cents::2 cents: fuk them!

Exactly!

Their food, shelter, clothing, medical, dental and everything else is already paid for by us. So if we factor those costs in with their 23cents/hr. wage - they get far more than 23cents.

Sympathy for prisoners is still found in the dictionary between shit and syphilis.

In Canada - serial killer Karla Homolka came out of prison with a goddamn university degree paid for by us...while behind bars. I don't have the adequate words to describe how pissed off I was when I heard that.

Well, I'm getting through the latest season of Orange is the New Black on Netflix.

Litchfield was just bought out by a private corporation and they're paying the ladies $1 per hour to sew lingerie.

Progress is being made.

QFT :thumbsup

If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

I thought this was going to be about Scientology and what they pay their workers.

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Where is the "LIKE" button?

:2 cents::2 cents::2 cents:

my name is anthony brown and this year i became a millionaire.