#PRISON SLAVERY

[luulapants]

Adding into the discussion of the incarcerated young people fighting fires in California:

I can think of no place worse than prison for emotionally stunting or regressing a person or for dismantling their ability to make good decisions.

You take an adult or child who maybe has exhibited some antisocial behaviors, right? So you remove them from whatever community and support network they have, put enormous financial and logistical barriers between them and any communication with that community. Incarcerate them hours from home in a place not accessible by train or plane with narrow visiting hours that conflict with people's work schedules, and maybe you're fighting to prevent in person visits at all, maybe you got a kickback from a company selling expensive video call visits so people can't even hug their kids when they drive 6 hours on a Wednesday to see them. Get a kickback from a phone service provider that's going to charge extortionate prices for every minute a person spends talking to their loved ones, and if the state passes a law saying you can't do that anymore, pivot and go after the mail. Subvert USPS. Get a kickback from a company that'll give prisoners shitty scans of letters or refuse to deliver it because it was flagged for drug contamination by a machine with a 70% false positive rate, force them instead to send texts at extortionate rates through their proprietary app.

Put them in an environment with a bunch of other people with social issues and force them to compete for resources. Give them no mental healthcare. If they are victimized by other prisoners, punish the victims with solitary confinement. Transfer people around so they can't form meaningful long-term friendships. Tell them that once they get out, it will be illegal for them to talk to any of the people they meet here.

Hire guards who have no qualifications other than a willingness to be a modern day slave overseer or the ignorance to not realize that's what it is, give them complete control over every aspect of other people's lives and tell them those people want to kill them and that any object can be covered in drugs so dangerous that touching them can kill. Allow the guards to traffic drugs into the prison with impunity. Have the guards discourage racial mixing because racial conflict in the prison means the prisoners won't join up against the staff.

You do all of this and you ask if a 20-year-old, who's been in the system since 14, is emotionally mature or psychologically healthy enough to choose to risk their life in exchange for slightly better living arrangements.

You take someone who has probably made some bad decisions, right? And you put them in a place where every detail of every day is decided for them: what they eat, when they eat, when they sleep, where they sleep, what clothes they wear, who they talk to, where they work. Or maybe you give them big decisions that have no right answer. Maybe at the start of the day, you open the cells and they have 10 minutes to decide if they want to be stuck in their cell all day - no shower, no recreation, no library - or go outside and be stuck in genpop all day - no napping, no alone time, no escape if someone is hassling you. You let them decide if they're going to eat breakfast at 3am (because there's too many meal shifts) or sleep in and spend their precious commissary funds on toaster strudel (they have no toaster) or sleep in and not eat even though you're barely giving them 1000 calories a day. You let them start to make decisions about how to spend their day, then you put them on lockdown, take all those decisions away.

You do all this and then you ask if anyone who's spent time in this environment has the decision-making skills to choose to risk their life in exchange for slightly better living arrangements.

All of the incarcerated firefighters in California are 18 or older, and all of them volunteered, but there is no world in which they were adequately prepared to make that decision.

[nando161mando]

The Convict Leasing Forced Labor System

[stele3]

Man, sometimes I remember — if the 20th of Maine hadn’t decided to fix bayonets and charge on Little Round Top, the U.S. might still have mass slavery instead of just* prison slavery.

*just

[onbreakreadlastpost]

Disgustingly shocking

California May Have Voted to Keep Slavery in Prisons

[meandmybigmouth]

Many people released from prisons and jails have a substantial amount of debt to repay

 many people released from prison have a large amount of debt to repay, including court costs, supervision fees, victim restitution, and child support. The amount of debt depends on how long someone is incarcerated and what the debt is for. Some businesses, such as Comcast and Sprint, forgive debts for people who have recently been released. However, some things stay on a person's record forever, including student loans and IRS liens, and are subject to collection activities.

AND THE STATE PAYS THEM 8 CENTS AN HOUR INSTEAD OF A REAL EVEN MINIMUM WAGE?

California Prison Officials Aim to Raise Hourly Minimum Wage for Incarcerated Workers — to at Least 16 Cents

The plan calls for doubling the minimum wage — from its current rate of just 8 cents an hour to 16 cents. Incarcerated people with the highest skill levels or in lead positions would earn as much as 74 cents an hour, up from 37 cents.

F*****G MONSTERS! THEY WORK THEM AND KICK THEM OUT ON THE STREET LOADED WITH DEBT? THAT'S SLAVE WAGES!

[thenixkat]

How UK Prison Gangs Actually Work | How Crime Works | Insider

[wack-ashimself]

MAGA my ass...

Name ONE SINGLE FUCKING THING (ONE) that he USA is doing correctly AND morally?

Cuz you could say war....but doing war right is never 'good.'

What a failed fucking nation full of losers. Why losers? Cuz winners don't give up, but most I meet have...

I mean, it's PROVEN with HARD DATA many other countries (mostly european) are happier, healthier, live longer, OWN their houses <WHOA!>, have more time off, have more savings, go on more luxurious vacations, AND have more FREEDOM (again, PROVEN) than USA citizens. So what are you paying taxes for? To have NOTHING? To own NOTHING? To be NOTHING?

But it's like USA peeps DENY that. Or ignore it.

If someone else is doing life better, and you're fucking miserable, you AT LEAST hear them out, you fucking morons. That's just LOGIC.

"Make America great again." IT WAS NEVER GREAT. FOUNDED ON: genocide and slavery. And....that's still where we are today! Largest prison population in WORLD history USED as slaves (more than during slavery) and a genocide in #Palestine. America has never been great and never will be. It's a failed fucking nation. Never ONCE has there been safe drinking water for every citizen, but you think it was once great? Then you're fucking stupid. Make people THINK again. Then maybe we can make permanent real world change....just maybe...

#maga #mpta

[etakeh]

You know, I looked this up to make sure it was real. Because it sounds a lot like dude is saying, "hey we need to keep good workers under our control to benefit the establishment."

Which, I mean, maybe I'm reading too much into it but that sounds an awful lot like, I don't know, slavery?

I mean we already knew that de facto slavery happens in the prison system, but dude just came right out and said it.

[amedawg18]

Those sandbags are being filled, in many cases, by inmate slave labor. Inmates who will likely be left to suffer and possibly die in this hurricane. So that's happening. And it really is all this serious. I know evacuation is not logistically feasible for many due to capitalism, disability, etc, but please seek out resources to get out if you can. Storm surge may be as much as 15 feet which is beyond deadly. Also, DO NOT LEAVE YOUR PETS BEHIND!

feeling very frustrated about the ways people are talking about hurricane Milton. lots of needless, borderline fear mongering language with very little actual helpful information.

information about Milton that might ACTUALLY be helpful:

Hurricane Milton is shaping up to be the third strongest hurricane ever recorded.

Make sure you have an evacuation plan if the order is given or if you've already been told to leave.

there is also a code for free Ubers to evacuate effected counties, as well as shuttles from evacuating counties to nearby storm shelters

Prepare/secure your home

Find your nearest shelter and be prepared to leave

If you want to stay in the loop about the hurricane, WESH 2 News has ongoing coverage ad-free on YouTube.

General resources/information:

Please for the love of God stop preying on people's fears and causing panic. Know what resources are available to you and how to access them. If you approach this hurricane carefully YOU WILL BE OKAY!!!!! YOUR LIFE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE RUINED!!!

Please link other resources you find or think other people might find useful!

[nando161mando]

This is what we got after “breaking records” for the company

[onbreakreadlastpost]

In America slavery is still legal in most states as punishment for a crime. How fucking disgusting

"Penal labor is permitted under the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits slavery except as a punishment for a crime where the individual has been convicted."

Article above is from November 13th 2023

[coraloctopus]

"yo dawg, we heard you like prison, so we put a call centre in your prison so you can do things that feel like prison to people on the outside while you're in prison"

[sayruq]

Here's his GoFundMe. It has passed its initial goal but keep sharing and donate if you can to help Hamza.

[hezekiahwakely]

Pulling information from this article to highlight because this is unconscionable and deserves more attention (all emphasis mine).

"Many choose work to being confined to a facility all day,” Betts [ of the corrections department ] said. “In many cases, it is a matter of quality of life. But ultimately, the inmate chooses and is not penalized for non-participation.”

No state has a longer, more profit-driven history of contracting prisoners out to private companies than Alabama.

Best Western, Bama Budweiser and Burger King are among the more than 500 businesses to lease incarcerated workers from one of the most violent, overcrowded and unruly prison systems in the U.S. in the past five years alone

The cheap, reliable labor force has generated more than $250 million for the state since 2000 through money garnished from prisoners’ paychecks.

Most jobs are inside facilities, where the state’s inmates — who are disproportionately Black — can be sentenced to hard labor and forced to work for free doing everything from mopping floors to laundry.

[Iᴍᴀɢᴇ ᴀᴅᴅᴇᴅ ʙʏ ᴍᴇ]

In Alabama, for instance, those shifts can offer a reprieve from the excessive violence inside the state’s institutions. Last year, and in the first six months of 2024, an Alabama inmate died behind bars nearly every day, a rate five times the national average.

Turning down work can jeopardize chances of early release in a state that last year granted parole to only 8% of eligible prisoners — an all-time low, and among the worst rates nationwide — though that number more than doubled this year after public outcry.

[ɪᴍᴀɢᴇ ᴀᴅᴅᴇᴅ ʙʏ ᴍᴇ]

Prisoners nationwide cannot organize, protest or strike for better conditions. They also aren’t typically classified as employees whether they’re working inside [or outside] [...] And unless they are able to prove “willful negligence,” it is almost impossible to successfully sue when incarcerated workers are hurt or killed.

[Iᴍᴀɢᴇ ᴀᴅᴅᴇᴅ ʙʏ ᴍᴇ]

[...]Gov. Kay Ivey signed an executive order last year giving the corrections department the authority to revoke good-time credits — days shaved off sentences rewarding model behavior — for “refusing to work"

[Iᴍᴀɢᴇ ᴀᴅᴅᴇᴅ ʙʏ ᴍᴇ]

[...] For the hundreds of private companies [...] the benefits are robust. Businesses pay at least minimum wage, but can earn up to $2,400 in tax credits for some inmates hired. Amid crushing staff shortages, they can rely on a steady, pliable workforce available to take extra shifts, fill in at the last minute when civilian workers call in sick and also work holidays. And if an incarcerated worker is injured or even killed on the job, the company may not be liable.

[Iᴍᴀɢᴇ ᴀᴅᴅᴇᴅ ʙʏ ᴍᴇ]

Alabama collected more than $13 million in work release fees in fiscal year 2024. But the prisoner lawsuit filed in federal court late last year with backing from the powerful AFL-CIO federation of unions, estimates the corrections department actually rakes in about $450 million in benefits from prison labor annually. That takes into consideration money saved by not having to hire civilians to maintain the sprawling prison system or work for government agencies.

Alabama’s attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment. But in successfully moving for dismissal of a similar state lawsuit filed by inmates last year, it said “slavery and involuntary servitude do not exist in the state’s prison system.”

That was true of Braxton Moon, his mother said. He told her how terrified he was by how dangerously close cars whizzed past him, even as he held a sign warning drivers to slow down.

Angela Lindsey pleaded with her son to quit — he was making only $2 a day. But he told her that working beat being locked up around the clock.

Two weeks later, in August 2015, Lindsey received a phone call from her cousin asking: “‘Is it true?’”

She frantically called the center over and over, only to be hung up on each time. “All of this was before I even got anything — anything — from the state,” she said. “It was on social media. It was on the news.”

And then it was confirmed: Her son had been struck by a tractor-trailer in a hit and run along the side of Interstate 65.

He had died instantly. He was just 21.

[existennialmemes]

Nothing in the US is going to get better until we abolish slavery for real. Ubiquitously, with no exceptions. Protecting the rights of prisoners actively protects every person in the country.

If the laws allow for any class of people to be stripped of their rights, then any person could be stripped of their rights. And the State has an active incentive to criminalize its critics (like Briana Boston, who was arrested for terrorism despite never having committed a crime.)

As long as criminality is an excuse to strip anyone of their rights, none of us are safe.

[theconcealedweapon]

And who enforces this? Is it just a few bad apples, or is it all cops?

How hard is it for them to find cops willing to enforce this? Do they have to sift through hundreds of heroic cops who refuse until they find the one cop who's monstrous enough to enforce this, or do they easily find cops willing to enforce this because monstrous cops are everywhere and being a monster is part of the job?

"All cops are bad" is not a stereotype. It's literally a requirement for the job that every single one knew about.