Correctional Industries: How Governments Exploit Prison Labor to Subsidize Their Budgets

Date:  01-10-2024 For over a century states have used the Thirteenth Amendment's exception clause to implement slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishment

From Worth Rises: There is a common misconception that private corporations are the primary beneficiaries of forced prison labor due to viral exposés of corporate exploitation by brands like Burger King. However, while private corporations may be the most vile beneficiaries of prison labor given their for-profit interests, federal, state, and local governments are the primary beneficiaries. Among the many vehicles that governments use to exploit prison labor are correctional industries, little known government-run businesses that use prison labor to manufacture products and provide services, generally sold to other government agencies. These cheap products and services subsidize state budgets by both generating revenue for the corrections department and saving costs for the other government agencies that would otherwise need to procure the products and services in the public market. Correctional industries emerged over a century While governments have been exploiting prison labor since the first prison was built, formal correctional industries emerged largely after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, in three distinct waves. Continue reading >>>