The Brutal US Prison System. Prisoners Must Have the Right To Organize

Source: ACLU (Screenshot)

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

GED/HEO

6-17-22

 

It is widely known that the US imprisons more of its population than any other country in the world. Two thirds of these prisoners almost 800,000 people according to a new report from the U.S. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), also function as workers. This has been a contentious issue within organized labor although, like every other important issue in society, the labor hierarchy does next to nothing to combat it.

 

Workers in prisons are denied basic rights afforded the rest of the population.  The brutal US prison industrial complex is as secretive as the US military where workers in uniform are also denied many rights the rest of us have. The 13^th Amendment to the US Constitution protects against slavery and involuntary servitude but, as the report points out, “….explicitly excludes from its reach those held in confinement due to a criminal conviction. The roots of modern prison labor can be found in the ratification of this exception clause at the end of the Civil War, which disproportionately encouraged the criminalization and effective re-enslavement of Black people during the Jim Crow era, with impacts that persist to this day.”

 

The ACLU report points out that these, “…..incarcerated workers, produce more than $2 billion per year in goods and more than $9 billion per year in services for the maintenance of the prisons. Once incarcerated, workers are excluded from minimum wage, safety and other labor laws, they are denied the right to unionize. Here in California, we have seen how important incarcerated workers’ are during fire season as many of those that fight the increasing number of wildfires that are a product of climate change, are prisoners. A total of 14 states use prisoners in this capacity, the report says.

 

Prisoners are forced to work for next to nothing----13 to 52 cents an hour and it comes as no surprise that seven southern states, renowned for the brutal exploitation of prison labor, historically, in particular when it comes to the black population, pay no wages at all.

 

The pandemic has also had a devastating effect on the incarcerated with more than 3000 dying, “…..due to overcrowding, lack of access to virus mitigating tools like masks and vaccines, and inadequate access to health care.” Some 16 US states denied them early access to vaccines the report says.

 

Faced with the increased efforts by the mostly young unorganized workers at places like Starbucks and Amazon, the labor hierarchy has been forced to pay lip service to this movement. We have seen some of the leaders of this movement being photographed with established union bureaucrats and some have made comments here and there. On twitter, a “like” here and there from established union officials, Sara Nelson of the flight attendants’ union for example, has accompanied tweets from Amazon and Starbucks activists, but there has been no serious effort on the part of the labor hierarchy to mobilize the potential power of organized labor’s 14 million members and link the organized with the unorganized in a serious offensive against capital.

 

The organized working class must demand that the incarcerated and workers in the military have rights afforded the rest of us, rights workers fought hard for over a couple of centuries. In particular, the right to unionize. The ACLU report explains that prisoners that refuse to work are subject to punishments that include loss of family visits, denial of sentence reductions and even solitary confinement. Every worker should be conscious of this brutality and if in a union, take the issue up with your co-workers and get your local to take a position. We need to make this an issue. Incarcerated workers are among the most vulnerable of our class with the least rights. Not surprisingly, the bosses will not be averse to using them against us when we go on strike, just as they do with workers in the military. Fighting to expand rights we have to those of us in prison and in the military will strengthen us in our day to day battles against the capitalist offensive and the destruction of our wages, benefits and standard of living in general.

 

I am not naïve enough to expect the trade union hierarchy to take action on this disgraceful situation as even going on the offensive on behalf of their own members is avoided. The union officialdom, is fully aware of the tremendous potential power of their own members and are terrified of it and the idea that the Democratic Party will step to the plate is sheer fantasy.  But labor’s rank and file and all activists fighting on any fronts, must take these issues up. It is in our best interests to do so.

 

The ACLU report can be read here.