American history as taught in the US frequently emphasizes that one of the by products of the Civil War between the states during the mid-19th century was the elimination of slavery. And students learn about the 13th amendment to the Constitution of the United States that made slavery illegal. A closer look at the amendment, however, shows the prohibition against slavery to be far from absolute. The 13th amendment actually 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,' and effectively gives constitutional cover to the exploitation of prison labor. The use of inmates as a labor force certainly isn't a new one. It has been a feature of prison life for hundreds of years. Who hasn't heard of the 'chain gang,' for instance, that has well represented in popular songs and movies. In the film Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow tells the true story of Barrow's having cut off two of his toes to escape a work detail in order to impress Bonnie Parker, portrayed by Faye Dunaway. It also served to enhance the 'anti-authority' message of the film. Some historians and journalists have subsequently commented that self-mutilation of inmates in the Texas prison system of the early 20th century was not uncommon, such were the brutal conditions associated with prison work details in the fields. Another widely circulated story had a US military serviceman writing home during World War II to boast that Al Capone, then incarcerated at Alcatraz, was doing his laundry. What is a relatively recent development is the extent to which both private companies, and the US military, have exploited prison labor. Until the 1970's, it was illegal for private companies to engage inmates in labor, although both federal and state governments were able to use inmates for such things as making furniture for government offices and, of course, license plates, among other things.

But many private companies were quick to involve themselves with inmate labor for many reasons, the most obvious of which was profit. Inmate labor provided a potentially large work force, exempted from federal regulations governing wages and occupational health and safety. According to the US Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), as of December 31, 2005 there were 2,193,798 people in federal, state or local prisons or jails, an increase of 2.7 percent over 2003. Out of every 100,000 male inmates, BJS reported, 3,145 were African-Americans; 1,244 were Hispanic; and 471 were white. The number of women incarcerated at the end of 2005 increased by 2.6 percent when compared to year end figures for 2004. Very clearly, these numbers represent a sizeable, captive labor force, and major corporations have not been as shy about availing themselves of that source as they are about being exposed for doing so. 'Slavery is being practiced under the color of law,' said prison activist and jailhouse lawyer Ruchell Magee in comments quoted by the Berkeley-based Prison Activist Resource Center. 'Slavery 400 years ago, slavery today, it's the same thing, with a new name. They're making millions and millions of dollars enslaving blacks, poor whites, and others -- people who don't even know they're being railroaded,' Magee commented. (Magee was initially a co-defendant along with noted Communist professor and activist Angela Davis against charges arising from a courtroom shootout in 1971. Their trials were separated; Davis was acquitted of all charges). Federal inmates are usually employed by UNICOR Federal Prison Industries, Inc. Their website (www.unicor.gov) boasts seven groups: 'Clothing and Textiles,' 'Electronics,' 'Fleet Management,' 'Industrial Products,' 'Office Furniture,' Recycling' and 'Services.' These divisions provide labor connected to more than thirty different products; from law enforcement, military and industrial uniforms to the refurbishing of vehicles; from making draperies to providing fulfillment services. UNICOR states its mission is to 'contribute to the safety and security of our Nation's correctional facilities by keeping inmates constructively occupied; produce market-price quality goods for sale to the Federal Government; operate in a self-sustaining manner; and minimize FPI's impact on private business and labor.' It must be noted that a reduction in recidivism -- the likelihood of a repeat offense -- isn't mentioned in the mission statement. This is an interesting omission, insofar as proponents of the move permitting private corporations to use inmate labor have customarily cited decreased recidivism in their arguments. Private corporations and firms who have looked to the prison labor force also give little more than lip service to notions of rehabilitation, preferring instead to rely on the argument that prisoners can perform work that no one else will do. This argument was well and truly scuttled by Seth Sandronsky, a Sacramento based peace activist and progressive journalist. In his article 'US Prison Nation' that appeared in the December 2-3, 2006 issue of Counterpunch, Sandronsky wrote:

'Without a doubt, harsh laws that sentence non-violent drug offenders to prison are propelling the rise of the U.S. prison population. At the same time, national minorities of both genders are less likely than their white counterparts to be employed. In short, U.S. prisons are caging surplus workers whose labor the American economy increasingly does not need.

'This employment and imprisonment link is not the irrational working of a rational economy. To the contrary, we see an irrational economy that more and more requires prison cells for those who have no chance of finding their way onto employers' payrolls. Why would people of any developing nation wish to emulate the job and prison conditions of the U.S.?'

Sandronsky's question is a fair one, indeed.

The Prison Resource Activist Resource Center (PARC) is focusing much of its efforts on exposing the realities of prison labor. They refer to the 'Prison Industrial Complex,' a term they adapted from a presentation by Angela Davis, as having the following features:

• The exponential expansion of prisons and jails, with rising numbers of men and women prisoners from communities of color;

• The increasingly symbiotic relationship between private corporations and the prison industry -- a relationship in which private corporations feed the punishment industry and the punishment industry yields enormous profits for private corporations;

• The reliance of many communities on prisons and jails for short-term economic vitality, particularly in the aftermath of corporate migration to impoverished countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and South East Asia;

• The increasing political influence of prison guards, prison officials and conservative penologists;

• The collaboration of politicians and the corporate controlled dominant media in the wholesale criminalization of communities of color (and particularly youth of color) and in the representation of prisons as a catch-all solution to problems (problems created by capitalism in the first place). The expansion of the Prison Industrial Complex, like the Military Industrial Complex that came before it, has as its genesis the highly touted 'public-private partnership' often emphasized by the ultra-right. In this case, not insignificant numbers of the public have been imprisoned to enrich even further private firms, of which Wackenhut and the Corrections Corporation of America which, between them, are benefiting from the labor of more than 100,000 prisoners according to the PARC.

This prisoner labor-for profit equation is aided and abetted by the fact that prisoners are customarily paid less than minimum wage. Although prisoners in California are paid the minimum wage, according to the PARC, this is customarily reduced so that the inmate receives $1.15 per hour -- and that's on the high end.

This point is further supported by an article by Carey Seal, appearing in the Baltimore Chronicle in 2003. 'Prisoners do not retain all their earnings; fiscal arrangements differ from state to state. After federal and state taxes are withheld, somewhere between 41% and 80% of a prisoner’s wages is applied toward costs of incarceration; the balance may go toward support for prisoners’ families, victim compensation, prisoner “allowance,” and/or a savings account for the prisoner to access when leaving prison. The “allowance” is becoming more important as some state prison systems, strapped for cash, are requiring prisoners to make co-payments for medical care and prescriptions; in the state of Washington, prisoners are even charged a $10 UPS delivery fee to ship their belongings when they are transferred from one facility to another,' Seal wrote.

Their working conditions are no better than their wages. 'The conditions for working prisoners are among the worst in the industrialized world,' according to the PARC. 'There are no benefits, no vacation, no decent health care, no safety standards, and prisoners are not allowed to form a union. Severe repression and longer sentences result from a refusal to work. Prisoners are beaten, put in solitary confinement, or both. There is no oversight of prison labor conditions, and no accountability, so prison officials have no incentive to provide safe working conditions or treat prisoners humanely.' These realities are exemplified by one prisoner from Arkansas, who wrote to the PARC about his work on what was known in the prison as the HOE-SQUAD.

'I was forced to work while it was raining and lightening,' this inmate wrote. 'I was forced to work in water and mud. I was forced to use a hoe to chop grass all the way to the dirt not missing a single blade of grass or get wrote up. I was forced to chop at the ground 200 times in the same spot before moving a step, using the same arm. The officer was cursing the entire squad and laughing at us and yelling. He also threatened us if we did not follow his orders. I was physically threatened by the High Rider who watches over all the squads and he did this in front of inmates, officiers and the field major (BOSSMAN) who said nothing to stop these illegal acts.'

Critics of prison labor policy point to incidents like the one above not only to demonstrate the need for humane conditions and oversight, but also to point out that many prison jobs are of no value in preparing a prisoner for work outside the walls.

'All this is not to say that prisoners should not work. Prisoners should have the same right to work as people on the outside,' PARC states. 'They however need to have safe, meaningful work, decent pay, and the right to organize or unionize.'

It would be a mistake to think that only private employers are eager to exploit prison labor. The United States Army is, as well. On January 14, 2005 the Army issued a revised 'Army Regulation 210-35: Civilian Inmate Labor Program.' Section 1-5a of that regulation states as follows:

'Civilian inmate labor programs benefit both the Army and correction systems by:

(1) Providing a source of labor at no direct labor cost to Army installations to accomplish tasks that would not be possible otherwise due to the manning and funding constraints under which the Army operates (emphasis added); (2) Providing meaningful work for inmates and, in some cases, additional space to alleviate overcrowding in nearby correction facilities.'

The regulation also provides that correctional officers, not the military, will have the responsibility for inmate control and conduct.

Despite the platitudes the regulation contains about 'meaningful work for inmates,' the core of this regulation is about using imprisoned labor for military purposes; something that harkens back to the policies of Nazi Germany and Italian and Japanese fascism.

There is something more than slightly hypocritical about all of this when it is considered that US policy from the Cold War period onward have made reference to individuals imprisoned in the People's Republic of China, Cuba and the former Soviet Union. The late Communist Party leader Victor Perlo was on target when he wrote in 1999:

'We have a half-million more prisoners than China, which has nearly five times our population. We have twice the rate of South Africa or Cuba; five times the rate of China, Canada or Mexico; six times the rate of Germany or France. Our Black population of 35 million approximates the Black population of South Africa. But there are 900,000 Blacks in U.S. prisons compared with 140,000 in South Africa.

'U.S. imperialism uses cries of prison labor to attack China and other socialist countries. Unfortunately, the UAW leadership, in its magazine Solidarity, puts China on probation for various sins, notably human rights violations like prison labor. These statements help General Motors instead of union members. Those concerned with human rights should look homeward.' ('Prison Labor in the US,' August 17, 1999).'

Cuba has been on the receiving end of criticism from various US administrations since its successful 1959 revolution and subsequent efforts to build socialism. But the Cubans are not fooled by the reason for the increase in prison labor on these shores.

'Thanks to prison labor, the United States is once again an attractive location for investment in work that was designed for Third World labor markets.,' writes Vicky Pelaez in an article for El Diario-La Prensa in New York and subsequently adapted for Granma, the newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba. 'A company that operated a maquiladora (assembly plant in Mexico near the border) closed down its operations there and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California. In Texas, a factory fired its 150 workers and contracted the services of prisoner-workers from the private Lockhart Texas prison, where circuit boards are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq. '

Let's return to the question Seth Sandronsky asked in his Counterpunch article:'Why would people of any developing nation wish to emulate the job and prison conditions of the U.S.?'

The answer, of course, is that no nation wants to emulate the job and prison conditions of the US. Not in China or Cuba; not in Venezuela or Bolivia; not in Iraq or Iran. Internationally, and increasing here at home, people are rejecting the ultra-right's profit uber alles agenda and coming to the understanding that when George W. Bush and his cronies refer to 'American values' and the proverbial 'good old days,' they do not have the Ron Howard-Henry Winkler television show, 'Happy Days,' in mind. Indeed, if the prison labor situation is any indication, they're thinking of the Bastille and of sweatshops like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York, where 146 immigrant workers were killed in a fire on March 25, 1911.

The late comedian Richard Pryor, commenting about prisons in the United States, said there was 'no justice….just us.' One doesn't need to be a Marxist to understand the 'irrationality' of capitalism, as Seth Sandronsky's article noted. While all people of good will would find the exploitation of prison labor abhorrent, it must be understood that such exploitation is the name of the game called capitalism. And as long as words like 'supply,' 'demand,' and 'profit' are deemed more important than 'reason,' 'fairness,' 'humanity,' 'democracy' and 'sanity,' the struggle will and must continue.