<
https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-c6f0eb4747963283316e494eadf08c4e>
"ANGOLA, La. (
AP) — A hidden path to America’s dinner tables begins here, at
an unlikely source – a former Southern slave plantation that is now the
country’s largest maximum-security prison.
Unmarked trucks packed with prison-raised cattle roll out of the Louisiana
State Penitentiary, where men are sentenced to hard labor and forced to work,
for pennies an hour or sometimes nothing at all. After rumbling down a country
road to an auction house, the cows are bought by a local rancher and then
followed by
The Associated Press another 600 miles to a Texas slaughterhouse
that feeds into the supply chains of giants like McDonald’s, Walmart and
Cargill.
Intricate, invisible webs, just like this one, link some of the world’s largest
food companies and most popular brands to jobs performed by U.S. prisoners
nationwide, according to a sweeping two-year
AP investigation into prison
labor that tied hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of agricultural products
to goods sold on the open market.
They are among America’s most vulnerable laborers. If they refuse to work, some
can jeopardize their chances of parole or face punishment like being sent to
solitary confinement. They also are often excluded from protections guaranteed
to almost all other full-time workers, even when they are seriously injured or
killed on the job.
The goods these prisoners produce wind up in the supply chains of a dizzying
array of products found in most American kitchens, from Frosted Flakes cereal
and Ball Park hot dogs to Gold Medal flour, Coca-Cola and Riceland rice. They
are on the shelves of virtually every supermarket in the country, including
Kroger, Target, Aldi and Whole Foods. And some goods are exported, including to
countries that have had products blocked from entering the U.S. for using
forced or prison labor.
Many of the companies buying directly from prisons are violating their own
policies against the use of such labor. But it’s completely legal, dating back
largely to the need for labor to help rebuild the South’s shattered economy
after the Civil War. Enshrined in the Constitution by the 13th Amendment,
slavery and involuntary servitude are banned – except as punishment for a
crime."
Via Lisa Stranger and Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
