this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2024
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[–] Nudding 27 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

When was the last time you or anyone you know saw prison slave labor at work?

Edit: For the life of me, I can't figure out what's controversial about saying it is hidden and you've probably never seen slave labor at work.

[–] Nudding 5 points 9 months ago (3 children)

As a Canadian, I've been hoping you guys could abolish slavery since I learned of it decades ago.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

As a Canadian, the fact that it took until the 90s to close the last residential school gives me little faith that the US will make tangible moves to end slavery in this century.

[–] Nudding 2 points 9 months ago
[–] InternetCitizen2 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I really don't get how it is not political suicide to support slavary.

[–] Nudding 2 points 9 months ago

It is, but not in America, Home of the fee, land of the slaves.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

That would require a functional government and active electorate.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago

Prison labor is another word for slavery.

[–] bjg13 17 points 9 months ago

Strange, its almost like because slavery is still legal, companies are using it for profits in some kind of military industrial prison "complex"...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


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.

The AP sifted through thousands of pages of documents and spoke to more than 80 current or formerly incarcerated people, including men and women convicted of crimes that ranged from murder to shoplifting, writing bad checks, theft or other illegal acts linked to drug use.

Mammoth commodity traders that are essential to feeding the globe like Cargill, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus, Archer Daniels Midland and Consolidated Grain and Barge – which together post annual revenues of more than $400 billion – have in recent years scooped up millions of dollars’ worth of soy, corn and wheat straight from prisons, which compete with local farmers.

Pastorick said the department has transformed Angola from “the bloodiest prison in America” over the past several decades with “large-scale criminal justice reforms and reinvestment into the creation of rehabilitation, vocational and educational programs designed to help individuals better themselves and successfully return to communities.” He noted that pay rates are set by state statute.

In March 2020, though all other outside company jobs were halted, the Arizona corrections department announced about 140 women were being abruptly moved from their prison to a metal hangar-like warehouse on property owned by Hickman’s Family Farms, which pitches itself as the Southwest’s largest egg producer.

Though the company has since stopped using them, in recent years they were hired in Arizona by Taylor Farms, which sells salad kits in many major grocery stores nationwide and supplies popular fast-food chains and restaurants like Chipotle Mexican Grill.


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