GW Scope Feature: Land of the Incarcerated, Home of the Underpaid: Looking at the History of Prison Labor

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Land of the Incarcerated, Home of the Underpaid: Looking at the History of Prison Labor

BY BEN CHAPMAN

In October of 2021, a federal jury in Washington state ruled that immigrant detainees in a private detention center in Tacoma, Washington, were eligible for $17.3 million in back pay for illegal wages. The GEO Group, a private for-profit prison group that runs the US Immigrant and Customs Enforcement facility, was determined to be in violation of Washington’s minimum wage law by paying detainees only $1 per day for participation in their Voluntary Work Program. The federal judge and jury in the case identified over 10,000 former and current detainees who would be eligible for back pay and ordered GEO to pay Washington’s minimum wage ($13.69/hour) going forward. Part of GEO’s defense was the fact that Washington doesn’t even pay minimum wage for incarcerated people in staterun facilities. In fact, inmate wages in Washington range from $0.65 to $1.75 an hour along with policies in place that could increase sentences for inmates who refuse to work while incarcerated. Although the case is a landmark ruling in favor of detainees and incarcerated people in the future, it unearths an ugly underside of our country through the history and present-day use of prison labor.

The thirteenth amendment monumentally ended slavery within the United States--for almost everybody. The amendment reads: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” While outlawing slavery for most, the thirteenth amendment effectively legalized slavery for people convicted of crimes. The amendment reads:

As a result, states recognized that incarcerating individuals presented a new potential market for cheap labor. Southern states quickly enacted laws targeting freed slaves, even going so far as requiring freed slaves to work for white farmers at risk of being incarcerated. Prisons, particularly within the South, began leasing inmates to plantation owners to provide cheap labor. These inmates were treated with even less respect or care than formal

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the

United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

slaves, deemed as expendable and replaceable criminals rather than personal property. Upon seeing the profits that farmers would make from utilizing inmate labor, some states began buying plantations to subject prisoners to work on and made massive profits as a result.

The practice of grossly underpaying prisoners for their labor hasn’t stopped, but rather found a new form over time. Presently, all states have laws in place specifying the wages inmates are capable of earning. However, the average wages that inmates have earned have actually decreased in recent years, with the average hourly prisoner wage decreasing from 93 cents per hour in 2001 to 86 cents as of 2017. Some states even have laws implementing a maximum daily or monthly wage that prisoners cannot exceed, and many of these maximum wages allotted have been lowered by states over time. As a result, the average maximum daily wage for prisoners has declined even more significantly from $4.73 in 2001 to $3.45 in 2017. Within federal prisons, inmates only earn between 12 to 40 cents an hour for jobs servicing the prison itself.

Increasingly in recent decades, corporations have sourced cheap labor from prisons. This work is typically known as Federal Prison Industries or Correctional Industries at the state level. On average, these jobs pay slightly more than non-industry jobs within the prison (such as laundry, cleaning, and serving meals). The pay, however, is still dismal--ranging from 23 cents to $1.15 per hour. The Prison Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP) provides certification for prison work programs that meet specific criteria--such as paying local wages-yet these criteria are often unregulated, ignored, and openly defied across the country.

“The pay, however, is still dismal--ranging from 23 cents to $1.15 per hour.”

Corporations often rely on obfuscating supply chain information available to the public through establishing joint ventures or relying on subcontractors to distance themselves from the name being attributed to prison labor. Some notable examples include McDonald’s underpaying inmates to process beef, JCPenney underpaying inmates to sew garments, and IBM underpaying inmates to create circuit boards. In recent years, some corporations that previously relied on prison labor have ceased ties after public outcry--such as Victoria’s Secret, Starbucks, and Whole Foods.

After earning such low wages, prisoners are potentially subject to various fees, directly subtracted from their paychecks, depending on the state they’re incarcerated in. In Massachusetts, up to half of the inmates’ paychecks could be put aside to cover expenses upon release, while New Mexico takes away anywhere from 15 to 50 percent of an inmate’s paycheck to put towards their Crime Victims Reparations Funds. Increasing reliance on restitution as a form of compensation for victims has led to increases in the fees taken out of prisoners’ pay. After these deductions, inmates often find themselves unable to afford goods deemed a “luxury” from the commissary-such as paying up to 21 cents an hour for a phone call or $5.50 for two tampons.

It’s difficult to determine whether prison labor will be addressed federally in the near future. In order to end the practice, Congress would need to introduce a Constitutional amendment finally closing the loophole presented in the 13th amendment. Attempts have been made to propose resolutions suggesting such an amendment but have yet to gain substantial support from Congress. That, however, should not understate the significance of the GEO ruling for immigrant rights going forward. The legal reasoning behind the ruling was the fact that immigrant detainees are incarcerated on civil charges rather than criminal, preventing GEO from utilizing the 13th amendment as a defense. Although GEO is appealing the decision and temporarily suspending their Voluntary Work Program, which will hold up the ability to provide back pay, this ruling opens up any immigrant detention center to be similarly sued and found to be in violation of the law. Going forward, immigrant detainees have a likely chance of fighting for a fair minimum wage rather than continuing the practice of legal slavery-otherwise known as prison labor--in the United States.

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