The United States incarcerates roughly 1.2 million people in federal and state prisons. Once incarcerated, these individuals lose their right to refuse work. Incarcerated people are at the expense of their employer, the prison system. 

The U.S. criminalized slavery in 1865 with the 13th amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Only, it wasn’t completely abolished. The 13th amendment explicitly excludes incarcerated individuals, allowing for the prison systems to exploit them for labor. 

Incarcerated individuals do not get to enjoy the most basic of workplace protections. They lack the right to form unions, to have safe working environments, to be paid fair wages for their work, and most of them cannot complain to supervisors without backlash. The threat of solitary confinement scares these workers if they dare to refuse work or even make complaints. 

On average, incarcerated individuals earn no more than 52 cents per hour. This is far less than the lowest state minimum wage, being $5.15 an hour in Georgia and Wyoming. Many express how they cannot afford basic necessities that they need from even the prison commissaries. Some states do not even pay incarcerated workers for their work. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas do not pay for the majority of jobs done by prison workers. 

Another startling issue is with the jobs most incarcerated individuals are tasked to do. Many of which would require training and safety equipment outside of their prison labor setting. Each year hundreds of prisoners endure work-related injuries and in some cases, death. This is a very avoidable issue; with proper training and safety equipment, these workers could be protected. But, the prospect of free labor is too great for these prisons. 

In order to properly say that the United States has abolished slavery, we must pay for the work that these individuals do. Just because someone is incarcerated does not mean that they get to be used for free labor. The prison systems need to ensure that they are providing the proper training and equipment for incarcerated individuals to safely do the jobs that they are sadly forced to do. In addition to this, the workers deserve to get paid minimum wage, according to whichever state they are imprisoned in. How are we supposed to say that prison is about rehabilitation if we are not giving these people the resources and/or environment to avoid reoffending and thrive?

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Sources :

https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/13th-amendment 

https://www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/captive-labor-exploitation-of-incarcerated-workers

https://www.aclu.org/report/captive-labor-exploitation-incarcerated-workers 

https://news.uchicago.edu/story/us-prison-labor-programs-violate-fundamental-human-rights-new-report-finds

https://www.paycom.com/resources/blog/minimum-wage-rate-by-state/#:~:text=Which%20state%20has%20the%20lowest,the%20federal%20requirement%20of%20%247.25. 

Photo by Emiliano Bar on Unsplash

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