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!

[Gene C]

That reminds me of a song - Chain Gang by Sam Cooke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-AW_l_W...rt_radio=1

[David Lockmiller]

(12-13-2023 12:59 PM)Gene C Wrote:  That reminds me of a song - Chain Gang by Sam Cooke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-AW_l_W...rt_radio=1

I'm going home one of these days.
I'm going home to see my woman.
See my woman, whom I love so dear.

But meanwhile, I've got to work right here.
Working on the Chain Gang.

Appropriate song, Gene. With the singing of the lyrics, you almost feel that you are right there "enjoying" the moment.

[David Lockmiller]

New York Times, December 14, 2023, The Morning: A disappointing policing change

In June 2022, 79 police killings were captured by police cameras nationwide. In the year and a half since, the police has released video in only 42 percent of those incidents.

Police departments can refuse to release videos for longer, if ever. Five years after an officer in Montgomery, Alabama, sicced his dog on a burglary suspect and killed him, the department still has not released the footage, citing the potential for “civil unrest.”

In 2013, a federal judge ordered New York officers to start piloting the use of cameras. Surveys indicated that the public supported the idea. But when the N.Y.P.D. established the policy, it decided that no video would automatically become public. To obtain footage, people would have to submit a request through an opaque and slow process. The N.Y.P.D. would decide what to release.

[David Lockmiller]

(12-14-2023 10:44 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  New York Times, December 14, 2023, The Morning: A disappointing policing change

In June 2022, 79 police killings were captured by police cameras nationwide. In the year and a half since, the police has released video in only 42 percent of those incidents.

Police departments can refuse to release videos for longer, if ever. Five years after an officer in Montgomery, Alabama, sicced his dog on a burglary suspect and killed him, the department still has not released the footage, citing the potential for “civil unrest.”

In 2013, a federal judge ordered New York officers to start piloting the use of cameras. Surveys indicated that the public supported the idea. But when the N.Y.P.D. established the policy, it decided that no video would automatically become public. To obtain footage, people would have to submit a request through an opaque and slow process. The N.Y.P.D. would decide what to release.

The Failed Promise of Police Body Cameras
by Eric Umansky New York Times December 13, 2023

n Memphis, where officers in a street-crimes unit regularly abused residents. They wore body cameras but faced no consequences until the case of Tyre Nichols, who was beaten to death this January by officers in the unit, attracted national attention. The footage showed that some of the officers took their cameras off. Others knew they were being recorded and pummeled Nichols anyway. It was only after public outcry that the department took the rare step of releasing footage, which contradicted initial police accounts and led to state and federal charges for five officers.

President Abraham Lincoln, November 10, 1864, in response to a serenade from supporters following the 1864 Presidential Election: “It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to maintain its own existence in great emergencies.”