Prisoners Sue Alabama, Calling Prison Labor System a ‘Form of Slavery’

[David Lockmiller]

Prisoners Sue Alabama, Calling Prison Labor System a ‘Form of Slavery’
(New York Times Headline - December 13, 2023)

The plaintiffs, who are all Black, contend that the state regularly denies incarcerated people parole so that they can be “leased” out to make money for government agencies and businesses.

According to the lawsuit, the system effectively resurrects Alabama’s notorious practice of “convict leasing,” in which Black laborers, from 1875 until 1928, were forced to work for private companies, who in turn paid substantial fees to state and county governments.

Since 2018, about 575 companies and more than 100 public agencies in Alabama have used incarcerated people as landscapers, janitors, drivers, metal fabricators and fast-food workers, the lawsuit states, reaping an annual benefit of $450 million.

The defendants include the governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, the state attorney general, Steve Marshall, and the chair of the Board of Pardons and Paroles, Leigh Gwathney; local governments such as the City of Montgomery . . . .

The suit describes a system riddled with financial incentives to keep people incarcerated and working. The Alabama Department of Corrections, it says, collects 40 percent of the gross earnings that private employers pay incarcerated workers, nominally to defray the cost of their incarceration.

The Alabama Department of Corrections also charges prisoners fees for basic services, like $15 a month for laundry and $5 a day for transportation to work, the lawsuit states.

Private companies are legally required to pay incarcerated people the prevailing wage. But they often earn far less in practice than the free workers laboring alongside them, the lawsuit states.

It's deja vu all over again!