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	Penal labour - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Convict or prison labour is another classic form of unfree labour.
		In some countries and historical periods, however, prison labour has been forced upon people who have been: victims of prejudice, convicted of political crimes, convicted of "victimless crimes", or people who committed theft or related offences because they lacked any other means of subsistence — categories of people for whom compassion is typically called.
		Another historically significant example of forced labour was that of political prisoners and other persecuted people in labour camps, especially during the 20th century.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Prison_labor (389 words)

	O'Hare, "Prison Labor for Private Profit," [1925]
		In every prison where goods are manufactured for sale in the open markets the ‘task’ system is used, and in actual practice it is the prison labor contractor who sets the amount of the task and determines the kind and severity of the punishments that shall be administered to force the prisoners to produce it.
		The prisoners making goods for the use of the state, or its subdivisions, could be credited with the prevailing wage, charged a fair price for maintenance, and the balance of their earnings could be used to support their families, or to provide a capital on which to start life anew when released.
		Prison labor contractors do not want their garments known as prison-made, and for that reason a good many of the garments made in prisons carry no brands and are made up with plain labels.
	www.binghamton.edu /womhist/kro/doc019.htm (4025 words)

	EXPLOITATION OF PRISON LABOR (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		Organized labor nationally and in the states has consistently supported efforts to provide training opportunities for prisoners to help in their rehabilitation and to reduce recidivism, but always with the caution that prisoners should never be used in competition with free labor or to replace free labor.
		Increasingly, however, prison labor is being used in both the states and by the federal government to perform work in both the private and public sectors ordinarily done by free workers.
		Prison laborers are generally denied coverage under minimum wage, unemployment compensation, workers_ compensation, collective bargaining and other worker protection laws.
	www.angelfire.com /sc2/mplu/aflciofpi.html (303 words)

	Fed Bill Would Allow More, and Cheaper, Prison Labor
		Prison labor for profit is closely connected with another trend: the increasing abundance of private prisons operated for-profit on a contractual basis.
		Protests of prisoners’ rights groups and organized labor and abuses of prison labor in the early part of this century prompted the federal government, in the 1930s, to restrict the transportation of prison-made goods across state lines and to set limits on the percentage of products federal agencies can procure from prison factories.
		This enthusiasm could stem from the fact that prisoners are awarded “good time” for working on PIE projects and thus are released earlier; thus the length of an inmate’s sentence can be tied to whether or not he or she cooperates with the for-profit work program.
	baltimorechronicle.com /prison_labor_jun00.html (1371 words)

	The Labor of Doing Time: Prison Labor in the US
		Prisoners were also leased out to private bidders to be housed, fed, and worked as slaves, which was referred to as the Convict Leasing System.
		Initially, inmate labor was purported to assist in the discipline and redemption of criminals; however, the potential net profit from convict labor was the driving force of the popularity of the Auburn system throughout the South.
		The initiative mandates that prisoners be made to work to pay for their imprisonment, and reintroduces private industry into the prison to benefit from this unprotected labor.
	www.angelfire.com /sc2/mplu/time.html (4083 words)

	NCPA - BA #245 - The Economic Impact of Prison Labor
		Since 1980 the state and federal prison population has increased from 316,000 to 1.2 million, and by the year 2002 the inmate population is expected to increase by another 400,000.
		If half of the prisoners could be employed by private enterprise during that time, their work would reduce taxpayer costs by almost $9 billion per year, or about 25 percent of the total cost of prison support.
		The largest prison supplier was the Federal Bureau of Prisons with $433 million in output for federal agencies, yet the system employed only 16,000 inmates out of 61,000 inmates eligible to work (i.e., those not in solitary confinement, considered dangerous or being transferred) from its total of 85,000 inmates.
	www.ncpa.org /ba/ba245.html (1386 words)

	Prison Labor
		Prisoners fill out applications, and are called for interviews on the basis of their work history.
		Wisconsin's prison population is expected to nearly double, from 8,948 inmates in 1994 to 15,846 by the year 2000, according to the Department of Corrections.
		But while putting prisoners to work might be a quick fix to the problem, the costs to businesses and working people hurt by the competition might prove too onerous.
	www.well.com /user/tomorrow/prison.html (2553 words)

	Prison Labor in the United States
		The article has a decided bias against the process of using prisoners are laborers, and loosely uses the term "forced labor" as if the system in the United States were akin to the USSR's gulags or Communist China's laogai.
		Prison labor on the rise in US, by Alan Whyte and Jamie Baker, May 8, 2000.
		Some prisons are paying 19 cents an hour to inmates, working them without breaks, subjecting them to constant verbal abuse, and in general treating them as slaves who should be thankful for the opportunity to work.
	prisonlabor.blogspot.com (1404 words)

	Fighting Prison Contract Labor (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		And with a state prison system bursting at the seams with over 12,000 inmates, half of them Black in a state that is 95% white, the supply is plentiful.
		These prisoners, along with another fifty who had been locked-down over the weekend when rumors began to circulate about a possible work stoppage, are employees of MinnCor, the state’s agency for contracting out prisoners to private corporations or other government agencies.
		By raising this demand, these prisoners struck a blow not only for themselves, but for all workers whose jobs and wages are threatened by the use of prison contract labor.
	my.execpc.com /~ajrc/nl5a1.html (1177 words)

	MIM Theory #11 - Prison Labor: Profits, Slavery and the State
		We know that Amerikan law clearly permits both slave and prison labor, a fact that is not relevant in mainstream debate because of the mandatory assumption of Amerikan democratic virtue.
		In 1995 government agency prison industries had sales of $1.2 billion, and private prison industries had sales of $83 million, 6.4% of the total sales.(2) These government sales may be undervalued, however, because their sales are to other agencies, so the prices are arbitrarily fixed.
		In April, a Virginia prisoner sent MIM proof that U.S. Representative Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) was using prison labor at a UNICOR plant to print newsletters for his political campaign.(20) McCollum is a death penalty advocate in favor of taking away habeas corpus appeals.
	www.etext.org /Politics/MIM/mt/mt11labor.html (3605 words)

	PLP Prison Pamphlet (February 2000)
		Prison labor led to the Briceville, Tennessee, Coal Creek Rebellion in 1891-1892.
		This huge increase in prisoners and prisons, and the cost of both, led to the current "solution": use forced prison labor to pay for the costs of building and maintaining the prisons, which in turn enables all the sectors of the capitalist class that feed off this prison-industrial complex to reap billions in profits.
		Prisoners are available at slave labor wages during peak demand and sent back to their cells during lulls.
	www.plp.org /pamphlets/prisonpamphlet.html (7081 words)

	Prison Factories: Slave Labor for the New World Order? (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		Although prison manufacturing facilities do offer short-term benefits at a time when budgets are strained to the breaking point, the system is ripe for exploitation and abuse by government and corporate entities seeking to cut financial corners.
		In California, prisoners who refuse to work are moved to discliplinary housing and lose canteen priveleges, as well as "good time" credit that slices hard time off their sentences.
		Corporatization of prison labor abuses inmates, exploits their labor and inevitably reduces the value of the private sector work force.
	www.parascope.com /articles/0197/prison.htm (886 words)

	Look for that Prison Label (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		Prison officials charged that the two were part of a "conspiracy to mastermind a sabotage effort to discredit and possibly put out of business a joint Venture Project," according to the complaint.
		Although the numbers of prisoners employed by private corporations are minuscule compared to the 1.7 million U.S. prison population, these public/corporate partnerships in corrections raise serious concerns for human rights activists and labor activists.
		The Texas Prison Labor Union, formed in 1995, demanded that inmates be paid minimum wage for work performed in the state prison system, be covered by state workers' compensation, and have access to arbitration of workplace grievances, according to an article in Prison Legal News.
	www.prisonwall.org /labor.htm (1655 words)

	The Seattle Times: Opinion: At what expense, prison labor? (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		When our state constitution was established in 1889, a coalition of labor and business groups came together and successfully urged the founders to outlaw the use of prison labor to the detriment of free labor.
		Over a century later, we again come together to remind the court that the framers of the constitution never intended a private company to have the benefit of captive prison labor to actively compete against employers that don't enjoy this state-subsidized workforce.
		Using its lower overhead and captive prisoner workforce, it competes directly for contracts with a handful of local private sector firms engaged in the same industry.
	seattletimes.nwsource.com /html/opinion/2001825583_prisonlabor30.html (832 words)

	Prison Labor: Workin' For The Man
		Private prison officials argue that their operations are more efficient than state facilities and give taxpayers a better bargain for their money.
		The use of prisoners to take away civilian jobs has a long history in the U.S. For most of the last century, prisoners were regularly leased out to plantation and factory owners.
		Prison labor led to the Briceville, Tennessee, Coal Creek Rebellion in 1891-92.
	www-unix.oit.umass.edu /~kastor/private/prison-labor.html (4393 words)

	BW Online \| March 19, 2001 \| The Perils of Prison Labor
		But things have in fact gone wrong with Haynesville prison's for-profit labor system, and what happened shines a light on the perils of for-profit prison labor, not only in Virginia but in the rest of the country.
		Organized labor and private industry within the affected area must be consulted before startup; written assurances must document that non-inmate workers will not be displaced; prisoner participation must be voluntary; and convicts must be paid minimum wage.
		Given then-Governor Allen's enthusiastic endorsement of prison labor, and a prison chief who keeps the department out of the glare of the media spotlight, it is not surprising that the potential for misconduct was enhanced.
	www.businessweek.com /magazine/content/01_12/b3724136.htm (1441 words)

	Forced Prison Labor in China (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		China has an unbelievable rate of executions in their prisons (and there is ample proof of organ harvesting), they imprison people who are not "criminals" at all, they are students, scholars, religious leaders, etc. Basically, they use their prisons as a way to neutralize anyone who may be a threat to their totalitarian regime.
		These prisoners are tortured, their families are forced to pay bribes, and, even if they survive their sentence, they are likely to be transferred to "jiuye" and, essentially, forced to do the same job they were doing as a "convict" with only the tiniest shift in their living conditions.
		Despite the vast numbers of Chinese prisoners in the laogaidui, the fortunate survivors who have made it out of the reach of the Chinese government have friends and family members that they must protect with their silence.
	home.earthlink.net /~patricia322 (3465 words)

	CNN.com - Protest slams Dell's use of prison labor - Jan. 10, 2003
		Some environmentalists dressed in prison uniforms say they are a high-tech chain gang.
		And the coalition says Dell is putting prison workers in danger because they aren't protected by federal safety standards.
		A Dell spokesman acknowledges that the prison labor does save the company money, but says inmates meet all standards.
	www.cnn.com /2003/TECH/biztech/01/10/dell.protest.ap (394 words)

	Barring Prison Labor
		A group of small-business owners is taking on Federal Prison Industries, the government-run business that sells the fruits of prison labor back to Uncle Sam.
		A reform bill, which was passed by the House and at presstime awaits a Senate vote, seeks to strip FPI of its ability to lock private companies out of federal contracts.
		Fans of FPI argue that it reduces prison unrest--and they note that when FPI was forced to vie with private firms on defense contracts, 1,700 inmates lost jobs.
	www.inc.com /magazine/20040201/competition.html (302 words)

	Seattle Weekly - news: Prison coffee (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		Richard Stephens, a Bellevue property-rights attorney, is suing DOC on the grounds that the program is unconstitutional, allows businesses that use prison labor to undercut their competitors' prices, and unfairly subsidizes some private businesses at the expense of others.
		Companies, like some advocates of prison labor, justify the practice by pointing out that the workers are making more than they could have in their impoverished rural villages, even if the pay is minimal by U.S. standards.
		Another key difference, Wright notes, is that prisoners can just be sent back to their cells whenever business goes through a lull; "on the outside, they have to lay off workers.
	www.seattleweekly.com /features/0152/news-barnett.shtml (1113 words)

	Private Prisons and Prison Labor (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		Note there is no contradiction between the facts that prisons are both hugely expensive and very profitable.
		Just like with military spending, the cost is public cost and the profits are private profits: it's yet another way of funneling public money into the pockets of the rich few.
		Here are a collection of interesting articles on prison privatization and prison labor.
	www-unix.oit.umass.edu /~kastor/private/privatize.html (85 words)

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