The State-Sponsored Slavery in our Prison System

By Derek Willie

Derek Willie is a rising sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania.

If you ask an ordinary American, he/she might tell you that slavery is illegal in the United States-- and has been for quite a while. But the reality is that’s not entirely true.

Interestingly enough, the Thirteenth Amendment, historically recognized as the formal end to slavery, actually permits involuntary servitude as a punishment for crime. It states: “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.” [1] The qualifier to the slavery ban is thus the ultimate legal authorization of forced, unpaid prison labor. Furthermore, courts have ruled that national labor standards, most significantly the Fair Labor Standards Act, do not protect prison inmates because they do not constitute “employees” as the legislation defines them. [2]

Unsurprisingly, the unprotected labor of prison workers is rewarded with wages far below $7.25 per hour, which is the current national minimum wage. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, federal prisoners who work-- by mandate-- for UNICOR, a government-owned corporation that sells goods made by prisoners, make from $0.23 to $1.15 per hour of labor. [3]  UNICOR doesn’t seem to dispute the low wages it pays prisoners;in a FAQ concerning the corporation’s alleged unfair market advantage, the website casually admits that its workers “are paid considerably less than minimum wage.” [4]

Despite the fact that prison workers are deprived of most labor protections, including the rights to organize and voice grievances against working conditions, the Federal government has taken some measures to protect prisoners from corporate exploitation. [5] In 1935, Congress passed the Ashurst-Sumners Act, which forbids the transportation of prison-made goods across state lines or into the United States, except for agricultural commodities. Nonetheless, while private interests are barred from transporting these goods as an act of interstate commerce, the law exempts the government (and all its entities) from its own regulation; hence, UNICOR’s ability to sell its goods. [6]

In 1979, however, Congress authorized the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP), which began allowing certain prisons to employ workers with the private-sector as long as the prisoner received wages comparable to “the prevailing local wage for similar work.” [7]  Although PIECP may be a step in the right direction, it is unclear how well the law is actually enforced: the previously cited Prison Policy Initiative claims that wages as low as $0.16 per day were reported for prison laborers working in private industry. [8] Moreover, the original 1935 act provides an obvious opportunity for private companies to exploit prison labor, insofar as they do not ship the non-agricultural products of that labor across state lines.

Ultimately, the stunning lack of regulations surrounding prison work represents yet another appalling reality of our criminal justice system. Whether captive labor is exploited for corporate or governmental purposes, it denies basic human dignity to the very prisoners it is alleged to rehabilitate-- all in the name of profit or self-interest. This is not to say that work is altogether detrimental as a means of rehabilitation; rather, work is valuable when workers feel it represents a meaningful, voluntary contribution to society that is appreciated and compensated. With better prison labor regulations, would it not be possible to instill in prisoners a sense of belonging in a society from which they have too often felt alienated? Or should prisoners remain cogs in the prison-industrial machine, feeling even more isolated in a system they already distrust?

To my musing, some might respond that fair compensation for prison inmates is economically unfeasible in that forced prison labor reimburses the government for the money it spends to take care of its inmates. After all, taking care of prisoners is expensive: New York City’s Independent Budget Office estimated that in 2013, the city paid almost $168,000 per prisoner for food, lodging and security. [9] Additionally, people might continue to ask, is it really fair to provide necessities to rapists and murderers at no cost while regular people struggle to afford them? Our interpretation of these issues seems to depend heavily on our philosophical understanding of prison. If prison’s aim is to punish the most heinous offenders of society’s laws, then it is not unreasonable to implement forced labor as a means of punishment. But if, on a far more optimistic note, prison’s goal should be to rehabilitate society’s most vulnerable-- often the victims of crimes themselves-- then perhaps a more respectful, more humane approach is required.

Finally, if one truly does subscribe to the former mentality, it is worth considering racial biases inherent in the modern criminal justice system. The NAACP reported that black men’s sentences for drug offenses were about as long as those of white men for violent crimes. [10] And even if widespread sentencing disparities had nothing to do with implicit racial bias, it’s still important to conceptualize how the economic and political abandonment of black neighborhoods, often forging a school-to-prison pipeline, land black men in jail far more often than their white counterparts. [11]

That these black men are performing the same sort of labor that the 13th amendment purportedly sought to end is deeply disturbing and demands a thorough investigation of both the prison-industrial complex and the criminal justice system that furnishes it.


[1] "Primary Documents in American History." 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress). Accessed July 22, 2016. https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/13thamendment.html.
[2] Benns, Whitney. "American Slavery, Reinvented." The Atlantic. September 21, 2015. Accessed July 22, 2016. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/prison-labor-in-america/406177/.
[3] "Section III: The Prison Economy." Section 3 The Prison Economy. Accessed July 22, 2016. http://www.prisonpolicy.org/prisonindex/prisonlabor.html.
[4] "Customers and Private Sector FAQs." UNICOR. Accessed July 22, 2016. http://www.unicor.gov/FAQ_Market_Share.aspx.
[5] Lafer, Gordon. "Captive Labor." The American Prospect. Accessed July 22, 2016. http://prospect.org/article/captive-labor#nextsection.
[6] "18 U.S. Code § 1761 - Transportation or Importation." LII / Legal Information Institute. Accessed July 22, 2016. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1761.
[7] "Bureau of Justice Assistance Program Brief." Bureau of Justice Assistance Program Brief. Accessed July 22, 2016. https://www.ncjrs.gov/html/bja/piecp/bja-prison-industr.html#mandatory.
[8] "Section III: The Prison Economy." Section 3 The Prison Economy. Accessed July 22, 2016. http://www.prisonpolicy.org/prisonindex/prisonlabor.html.
[9] Santora, Marc. "City’s Annual Cost Per Inmate Is $168,000, Study Finds." The New York Times. August 23, 2013. Accessed July 22, 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/nyregion/citys-annual-cost-per-inmate-is-nearly-168000-study-says.html?_r=0.
[10]"Criminal Justice Fact Sheet." NAACP. Accessed July 22, 2016. http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet.
[11] Ibid

​Photo Credit: Flickr User André Pipa

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