The crisis of mass incarceration is not felt evenly in the United States, race defines every aspect of the criminal justice system, from police targeting, to crimes charged, and rates of conviction. More Black men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began. Prison labor has its roots in slavery. After the 1861-1865 Civil War, a system of hiring out prisoners was introduced in order to continue the slavery tradition.
The main priority of the Prison industrial complex was to find ways to compensate for the loss of slaves after being freed .During the post-Civil War period, Jim Crow racial segregation laws were imposed on every state, with legal segregation in schools, housing, marriages and many other aspects of daily life. “Today, a new set of markedly racist laws is imposing slave labor and sweatshops on the criminal justice system, now known as the prison industry complex,” (Slavery by another name). The workers in this system are not only cheap labor, but they are considered easier to control. They also tend to be African-American males. These …show more content…
Private corporations are able to lease factories in prisons, as well as lease prisoners out to their factories. Shifts in the United States economy and growing crises of underemployment and poverty in communities of color have created the conditions for the current wave of mass incarceration, and the boom in prison labor exploitation. “The exploitation of African American male labor by prisons and multinational corporations that engage in prison industries did not arise out of the blue, nor is it coincidental.” (Hattery and Smith 2008) The fight against the exploitation of prison labor is at once a fight against racial profiling and mass incarceration, and also for genuine economic development in black, Latino, Asian, and Pacific Islander
The main priority of the Prison industrial complex was to find ways to compensate for the loss of slaves after being freed .During the post-Civil War period, Jim Crow racial segregation laws were imposed on every state, with legal segregation in schools, housing, marriages and many other aspects of daily life. “Today, a new set of markedly racist laws is imposing slave labor and sweatshops on the criminal justice system, now known as the prison industry complex,” (Slavery by another name). The workers in this system are not only cheap labor, but they are considered easier to control. They also tend to be African-American males. These …show more content…
Private corporations are able to lease factories in prisons, as well as lease prisoners out to their factories. Shifts in the United States economy and growing crises of underemployment and poverty in communities of color have created the conditions for the current wave of mass incarceration, and the boom in prison labor exploitation. “The exploitation of African American male labor by prisons and multinational corporations that engage in prison industries did not arise out of the blue, nor is it coincidental.” (Hattery and Smith 2008) The fight against the exploitation of prison labor is at once a fight against racial profiling and mass incarceration, and also for genuine economic development in black, Latino, Asian, and Pacific Islander