Many people have mistaken impression that slavery was outlawed or abolished in the United States after the Civil War by the passage of the 13th Amendment.  Unfortunately, that was not the case.  The 13th Amendment reads, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."  The effect of the 13th Amendment was not to abolish slavery, but to limit it to those who had been convicted of crimes.

This reality was made apparent following the Civil War when large numbers of newly freed black slaves found themselves "duly convicted" of crimes and thrown in state prisons where, once again, they labored without pay.  This led Virginia Supreme Court to remark in an 1871 case, Ruffin v. Commonweatlh, that prisoners were "slaves of the state."  Little has changed since then, except the states are less honest about their slaveholding practices.

With a historical cycle of falling in and out of favor, prison labor is once again on the rise.  But ultimately, neither prisoners nor workers stand to benefit from a system that offers no rehabilitative value and steal jobs from workers on the outside.

Until the 1930's, most state and federal prisons were largely self-sufficient.  They produced most of the goods and food that they consumed and even produced a surplus of food and industrial products for sale.  In many state prisoners even served as armed guards (until the mid-1970's, Arkansas held some 3,000 prisoners with only 27 civilian employees).  But the 1930's Depression largely brought an end to prison self-sufficiency and excess production-for-profit when both unions and manufacturers complained against prison made products on the open market.

Some reform in prison labor came later with the Ashhurst-Summers Act, which prohibited the transport in interstate commerce of prison made goods unless prisoners were paid minimum wage.

Prison Building Binge

But prison labor again became a major issue in the 1980's when the U.S. began a massive prison-building binge.  Until then, most prisons produced goods for their own use or for sale to other state agencies, license plates being the most famous example.But in a 1986 study, former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger called for transforming prisons into "factories with fences." In essence, the report argued that prisons should once again become not only self-sustaining, but profit-producing entitiies requiring minimal financial input from the state.

But there are compelling historical reasons why slavery is no longer the dominant code of economic production. Slaves had to be fed and housed, and they occasionally revolted and destroyed equipment or killed the owner.  Moreover, idle slaves are a drain on the owner's finances.

Today's slave owner-the state- faces the same problem of idle slaves who must be fed, housed, and clothed whether or not they produce anything of value.  The current thinking goes that any potential profit produced by prison slaves is better than none.

Some proponents of prison labor try to disguise it as "rehabilitation" or "vocational" programs designed to give prisoners job skills or a trade useful upon release.  This is not the case.  First, the jobs available in prison industries are labor intensive, low-skill jobs currently performed by exploited Third World workers, illegal immigrants in the U.S. or by prisoners.  Clothes and textile manufacturing is the most obvious example of this.  Second, menial skills acquired in prison industries are not in demand.  Does anyone expect a released prisoner to go to Guatemala or El Salvador to get a job sewing clothes for the U.S. market at a dollar a day?  Fourth, the U.S. has at least eight million to nine million unemployed workers at any given time, many of them highly skilled, who cannot find well paying jobs.  So-called "job retraining" programs have failed because training by itself does not create jobs with decent wages.

Forwarded by Marpessa Kupendua of BlackPower List - <blackpower@infobro.com> on 22nd Jan 1998

Date:  Mon, 19 Jan 1998 10:36:39 -0700
From: "The Horizon" <pacific-rim@eudoramail.com>
Subject: Re: Slaves of the State

From Washington Free Press
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The Horizon

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