Slaves of the State

by Paul Wright

This reality was made apparent following the Civil War when large numbers of newly freed black slaves found themselves "duly convicted" of crimes and thrown in state prisons where, once again, they labored without pay. This led the Virginia Supreme Court to remark in an 1871 case, Ruffin v. Commonwealth, that prisoners were "slaves of the state." Little has changed since then, except the states are less honest about their slaveholding practices.

With a historical cycle of falling in and out of favor, prison labor is once again on the rise. But ultimately, neither prisoners nor workers stand to benefit from a system that offers no rehabilitative value and steals jobs from workers on the outside.

Until the 1930s, most state and federal prisons were largely self-sufficient. They produced most of the goods and food that they consumed and even produced a surplus of food and industrial products for sale. In many states prisoners even served as armed guards (until the mid-1970s, Arkansas held some 3,000 prisoners with only 27 civilian employees). But the 1930s Depression largely brought an end to prison self sufficiency and excess production-for-profit when both unions and manufacturers complained about competing against prison made products on the open market.

Some reform in prison labor came later with the Ashhurst-Summers Act, which prohibited the transport in interstate commerce of prison made goods unless prisoners were paid minimum wage.

Prison Building Binge
But prison labor again became a major issue in the 1980s when the U.S. began a massive prison-building binge. Until then, most prisons produced goods for their own use or for sale to other state agencies, license plates being the most famous example. But in a 1986 study, former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger called for transforming prisons into "factories with fences." In essence, the report argued that prisons should once again become not only self-sustaining, but profit-producing entities requiring minimal financial input from the state.

But there are compelling historical reasons why slavery is no longer the dominant mode of economic production. Slaves had to be fed and housed, and they occasionally revolted and destroyed equipment or killed the owner. Moreover, idle slaves are a drain on the owner's finances.

Today's slave owner - the state - faces the same problem of idle slaves who must be fed, housed and clothed whether or not they produce anything of value. The current thinking goes that any potential profit produced by prison slaves is better than none.

Some proponents of prison labor try to disguise it as "rehabilitation" or "vocational" programs designed to give prisoners job skills or a trade useful upon release. This the not the case. First, the jobs available in prison industries are labor intensive, low-skill jobs currently performed by exploited Third World workers, illegal immigrants in the U.S., or by prisoners. Clothes and textile manufacturing is the most obvious example of this. Second, the menial skills acquired in prison industries are not in demand. Does anyone expect a released prisoner to go to Guatemala or El Salvador to get a job sewing clothes for the U.S. market at a dollar a day? Third, if it is rehabilitational, then why not pay the prisoner at least minimum wage for his/her work? Fourth, the U.S. has at least eight million to nine million unemployed workers at any given time, many of them highly skilled, who cannot find well paying jobs. So-called "job retraining" programs have failed because training by itself does not create jobs with decent wages.

Sweatshops Behind Bars
Despite these drawbacks, the U.S. continues to condemn the export of prison-made goods from China. This rank hypocrisy ignores the same criticisms leveled at U.S. prison-made goods. According to a story in The Seattle Times, prison made goods from California and Oregon are exported for retail sales. In a supreme irony, the Department of Corrections (DOC) in California is marketing its line of clothes in Asia, competing against the sweatshops of Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand, and of course, China. The "Prison Blues" brand of clothes, made by prisoners in the Oregon DOC, has projected export revenues of more than $1.2 million. U.S. State Department officials have expressed consternation about exports of prison made goods because foreign governments now raise it as an issue. For their part, the Chinese have announced a ban on such exports, while the U.S. has not.

The California prisoners making clothes for export are paid between 35 cents and one dollar an hour. The Oregon prisoners are paid between $6 and $8 an hour, but have to pay back up to 80 percent to cover the cost of their own captivity. The prisoners' real wages are between $1.20 and $1.80 an hour. This is still competitive with the wages paid to illegal immigrant sweatshop workers here in the U.S. and wages paid to garment workers in the Far East and Central America.

Fred Nichols, the administrator of Unigroup, the Oregon DOC prison industries, was quoted saying, "We want them to work in the same environment as on the outside," in terms of hiring interviews and such. But collective bargaining and union representation also teach important rehabilitational values such as collective dispute resolution and the principle of a fair wage for work.

However, in 1977 the Supreme Court decided Jones v. North Carolina, which denied any protection to prisoner union organizing. Efforts to obtain the minimum wage for prisoners through litigation have been largely unsuccessful, with courts bending over backwards to read exemptions into the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

While the particulars may change, the trend continues towards increased exploitation of prison labor. Some states, especially those in the South such as Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana, still have unpaid prisoners laboring in fields supervised by armed guards on horseback, with no pretense of rehabilitation or job training. In fact, Alabama recently set its prisoners upon the task of breaking rocks with sledgehammers. In those states labor is mandatory, refusal to work brings harsh punishment and increases prison sentences served.

Private businesses running slave operations in prison often receive massive state subsidies. In addition, state-run enterprises incur hidden security costs such as guards, checkpoints and controls not otherwise present with workers on the outside.

In Washington, the state offers incentives for private businesses to employ prison slaves. Class I venture industries pay no rent, electricity, water or similar costs. They are exempt from state and federal workplace safety standards, pay no medical benefits, unemployment or vacation/sick leave to slaves who have no right to collective organizing or bargaining. Thus, welfare capitalism offers private business a handout at taxpayer expense. To the extent that prison slaves are forced to pay state and federal taxes, there arises the question, linked to the right to vote, of taxation without representation.

Telemarketing While Doing Time
Meanwhile, prison workers in Washington work for roughly a dozen private companies, contracting, among other things, to make garments for Eddie Bauer, Cutter & Buck, and other name brands, to fabricate venetian blinds, and do telemarketing.

In the 1994 election, prisoners at the Washington State Reformatory were used to elect Jack Metcalf to Congress. Under the guise of performing a phone "poll," the prisoners called voters in the Second Congressional District telling them that Metcalf supported the death penalty while his opponent was opposed to it and that Metcalf supported lower taxes. This began five days before the election and ended at 1 PM on election day. Metcalf won handily despite having a long and well documented association with racists, white supremacists and right-wing kooks. I helped break that story and as a result the Washington Marketing Group, which employs the telemarketers, received unfavorable publicity. Metcalf paid the company $9,000 for the services, but denied any knowledge that it used prison labor. One bill is now in Congress aimed at banning the use of prison labor in campaigns.

This reveals the big lie: Politicians want to exploit prison labor, capitalists want to get rich off it, and some prisoners will sell out their interests for a few bucks, but no one wants the citizenry at large to be aware of it.

Workers on the outside should be aware of prison labor's consequences for their own jobs. Many jobs that come into prison are taken from free citizens. The May 1995 issue of Dollars and Sense reported a typical example. Lockhard Technologies of Texas closed its Austin branch, firing 150 workers and moved its operations into a prison run by the Wackenhut Corp. The prisoners are "paid" minimum wage, with no health or other benefits, yet keep only 20 percent of their total wages.

This is a pattern that repeats itself across the country. Not surprisingly, as unemployment on the outside increases, crime and the incarceration rate increase. It may be that before too long, the only menial labor jobs available will be in prison or Third World countries. The factory with fences meets the prison without walls.

Paul Wright is a Washington prisoner and co-editor of the Prison Legal News, a monthly magazine that reports on prison news and legal affairs. A free sample copy of PLN is available from: Paul Wright, #930783, PO Box 777, Monroe, WA 98272-0777.

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Contents on this page were published in the October/November, 1995 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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