Society How America reestablished slavery through its prison system

[Maciamo]

Another video by an American criticising his country's prison system. 25% of the people in prison in the world today are in American prisons. The US has a higher incarceration rate than the USSR did at the height of Stalin's totalitarian regime, which was infamous for imprisoning any political dissident (notably Siberian gulags). Now there is no need of being a political dissident. Judges will find any excuse to send people to jail on trumped up charges.

The most shocking thing about the US prison system is that private prison contracts include "occupancy guarantees" or "lockup quotas," which require states to keep a certain percentage of prison beds filled. These guarantees typically range from 70% to 90% occupancy. If the occupancy falls below the guaranteed level, the state may be required to pay the private prison company for the empty beds, ensuring a steady stream of revenue for the company regardless of actual inmate population levels. This often means that judges are asked to give harsher prison sentences in order to fill prisons. That's why even though violent crime and property crimes are three times lower now than they were in the 1990s the prison population has skyrocketed since.





But the worst of all is that the use prisoners as slave labour. Many white people in the former Confederate States see the antebellum (pre-civil war) period as a sort of golden age. They have sought ways of reestablishing slavery legally and found it.

You can see here that former Confederate States (also known as the Bible Belt) have the highest incarceration rates. And it's not necessarily states that are poorer or have higher black population. Texas is the sixth highest nationwide, although only 12% of its population is black — less than Connecticut New Jersey or New York, which are all at the bottom of the list. Kentucky and Oklahoma have even less black people (9%) and have the 4th and 8th highest incarceration rates. Both were former Confederate States.




I double checked the list of companies mentioned in the video as using prison labour for their personal gain. According to chat GPT : "several major American corporations have been reported to use prison labor in the United States. These companies often engage in this practice through partnerships with state and federal prison systems or by contracting with companies that utilize prison labor. Some notable examples include:

1. Walmart: Utilizes prison labor for manufacturing products and in their supply chain.
2. McDonald's: Uses prison labor to produce uniforms and other items.
3. Victoria's Secret: Has used prison labor to sew lingerie and other products.
4. AT&T: Has utilized prison labor for call center work.
5. BP (British Petroleum): Used prison labor for oil spill clean-up efforts.
6. Microsoft: Has contracted with companies that use prison labor for manufacturing products.
7. Starbucks: Has sourced packaging from suppliers using prison labor.
8. J.C. Penney: Has utilized prison labor in its supply chain.
9. Boeing: Uses prison labor for manufacturing components.
10. Intel: Has used prison labor in its supply chain.
11. Nike: Has been reported to use prison labor for manufacturing goods.
12. Whole Foods: Previously sourced products from suppliers using prison labor.
13. Verizon: Utilized prison labor for various services.
14. Kmart: Has used prison labor for manufacturing goods.
15. IBM: Has used prison labor for various manufacturing tasks.
16. American Airlines: Utilized prison labor for aircraft maintenance.
17. Sprint: Used prison labor for telecommunication-related tasks.
18. Chevron: Engaged prison labor for various tasks, including office work.
19. Caterpillar: Used prison labor in its manufacturing processes.
20. Coca-Cola: Sourced products from suppliers using prison labor.
21. Eddie Bauer: Has utilized prison labor for manufacturing products.
22. Aramark: Provides food services in many prisons and has used prison labor for food preparation and services.
23. Wendy's: Utilized prison labor for processing food products.
24. Quaker Oats: Reportedly used prison labor for manufacturing food products.
25. Macy's: Used prison labor in its supply chain for manufacturing goods.
26. Nordstrom: Utilized prison labor for manufacturing some of its products.
27. Target: Has used prison labor for manufacturing and packaging products
28. Fidelity Investments: Utilized prison labor for various clerical tasks.
29. Johnson & Johnson: Linked to suppliers using prison labor.
30. Merck & Co.: Engaged prison labor in its manufacturing processes.
31. Eli Lilly and Company: Utilized prison labor for drug manufacturing.
32. John Deere: Employed prison labor in its manufacturing operations.
33. Kellogg's: Used prison labor for packaging products.
34. PepsiCo: Engaged prison labor for manufacturing and packaging.
35. 3M: Utilized prison labor in manufacturing processes.

These practices have been criticized for exploiting incarcerated individuals by paying them very low wages, often much lower than the federal minimum wage."

The list is not exhaustive. If you ask chatGPT "are there any other companies?" it will find many more.

These wages are about two or three dollar per day. No wonder it's profitable. And that's why the system is not going to change anytime soon. Now that I found a way to reestablish slavery they're not going to let it go.

You can appreciate the hypocrisy of Westerners criticising China for using Uighur forced labour (often working in the factories of Western companies!) in Xinjiang. I'm sure that Americans hear much less about the forced labour in their own country in the American media.

 

[Maciamo]

According to a report by the Sentencing Project, as of 2018, it was estimated that around 10.6% of the adult population in the U.S. had been incarcerated in state or federal prison at some point in their lives. This equates to approximately 20-25 million people, considering the adult population size. That's crazy to think that one person out of 10 in the street has been in prison!

 

[Maciamo]

When discussing slavery it tends to conjure up images of ancient Rome in many people's mind. But the truth is that most slaves in ancient Rome were treated better than people in American prisons today. Apart from slaves working in mines, which had a very low life expectancy (like modern slaves in mines in Africa), most of the slaves were households slaves, who were generally treated well. They were housed (in lavish homes if they worked for rich people), fed and even educated. They were cleaners, cooks, accountants, valets, secretaries, tutors, musicians, entertainers, gardeners, security guards... And most importantly they were paid for their job. It wasn't a pittance either like him American prisons today. It was normal for slaves to save money to purchase their freedom. In fact many of them would save much more money than that in order to be able to start a small business of their own upon their manumission, so that they did not end up destitute after being freed. In many regards it was a much more enviable situation than being in prison in the US today.

There was no prison system in ancient Rome. Criminals were executed, exiled (usually only rich citizens), or sold into slavery. The most common of the three was of course slavery because it was the most profitable. Executions (typically crucifixions) were usually reserved to make an example in a troublesome population or for slaves who had revolted. So ancient slavery was very much a substitute for the modern carceral system.

It is commonly assumed that ancient slaves could be killed at will by their master. This was however very rare as slaves were expensive. From the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117-138 CE) this became illegal. This means that during about 80% of the length of the Roman empire masters didn't have the right to kill their slaves and could be prosecuted and punished for it.

Household slaves in ancient Rome were generally well treated and cared for when they were ill because slaves were expensive to buy in the first place and their owners didn't want to lose them. What's more over the year many owners would have become emotionally attached to their slaves. They more like low paid workers today, especially rich people's in-house servants. Ancient household slaves were technically not free but could buy their freedom. That was not so different from lower class workers today saving up money to achieve financial independence and starting a business of their own.

In contrast prisoners in the US today are treated worse, paid less for their work, and obviously cannot purchase their freedom.