MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
Prison labor is an interesting concept. Compared to the enormous
expenditures (financial, mental, physical, etc.) the rewards/benefits of
prison industrial labor are trivial in the extreme.
Excluding coveted “prison industry” posts, over 95% of prisoners are
employed in prison maintenance, construction, administrative/educational
labor). [This figure may be accurate in this comrade’s state. Our
preliminary results across 22 systems in the U.$. show almost 25%
working in manufacturing and agriculture. – Editor] Indeed, such work
does prove beneficial (in the case of kitchen labor – invaluable) to
prison operations. Kitchen work notwithstanding, the sum total of
benefits is small. So why do prisons use prisoner labor? Especially
considering it does little to lessen the economic burden of penal
institutions on society. There are two plausible answers to this
question. Surprisingly, neither is directly linked to financial
interests.
In the first place, prisoners are employed to reinforce socially
acceptable behavior and occupational patterns (by capitalistic
standards). While this may sound perfectly justifiable and even
admirable; truth is, it is far less altruistic. Reinforcement of
socially accepted roles is an integral aspect of the
subjection-manipulation cycle (see ULK 52 –
An
Invaluable Resource? And ULK 54 –
The
Adaption of Capitalistic Controls), which through an invasive,
subtle and constant life-long indoctrination, endeavors to create a
homogeneous populace. Prison labor is meant to be a control for inducing
conformity in prison which later translates to the same out in society.
An objective achieved through subjection (mandatory labor) and
manipulation (rewards or reprimands, restrictions and sanctions) in a
never-ending cyclic process. A process similar to Pablo Escobar’s
approach to business – plata o plomo (silver or lead). In simple terms,
accept my favor or risk my displeasure. This reality is paralleled
throughout society. Contribute to capitalism, strive to become a
capitalist, or experience privations, marginalization, ostracization,
imprisonment or worse. In a way, prison labor is a form or reeducation,
along capitalist lines.
In the second place, labor in prison provides an added buffer against
unrest and radical organization among prisoners. Prisoners structure
their days around their jobs, giving it importance and prominence in
their daily lives. Many would feel lost at sea, wayward, direction-less
without it. It gives the prisoner a focal point distinct from and
meaningless to their best interests – toppling the penal system.
Distracted by menial duties, most prisoners never bother to contemplate
their plight, subjection/manipulation, origins of their situation and
the oppression, which made it all possible (eventual?); not even
mentioning the oppressors who become an abstract “them.”
As such, prison labor does four important things for capitalism:
Reeducates deviants (self-determinants)
Reinforces classism
Drains on and distracts prisoner intellect
Impedes any meaningful development (mental, physical, political and
social)
Prisons are gargantuan popular control systems. Prison labor is a system
within a system created for the advancement of a thriving capitalist
state – inequality and an overabundance of commodities. Considering how
many prisoners work prison jobs, join society’s labor force and become
re-acclimated to capitalist control, the effectiveness of prison labor
as a process is quite horrifying. Ignorance is a capitalist’s bliss.
Knowledge is a revolutionary’s power. Understanding reality as it
confronts us is the first step to dismantling the penal institute as a
whole.
MIM(Prisons) adds: The point that much prison labor is not
actually saving operating costs is an important piece to our analysis
that we have yet to quantify. According to our survey, some 460,000
prisoners are working in prison maintenance jobs in the state and
federal systems at a median of 150 hours per month. To hire that work
out at $10/hr would cost around $9 billion, or what would amount to 10%
of the money spent on the criminal injustice system.
However, it is not uncommon for state-funded programs to hire more
people than they need to complete a job, because profit is not the
motive. And it makes sense to pay prisoners for attending schooling and
other programming activities when the motivations above are considered.
This is another perspective on prisons as social control. Socialist
states have and will also use prisons to shape populations in a certain
direction. Of course, the state apparatus serves that economic system.
In socialism, prisons combat classism. In capitalism, they reinforce
it.
The Western press often aims the disparaging term “labor camps” at Asia
and the former socialist countries of the world. Yet, with the largest
prison population in the world, it should not be surprising that it is
the Amerikans who have more prisoners working for them than any other
nation. And their labor subsidizes the cost for Amerikans to maintain a
highly structured and institutionalized system of national oppression in
this country.
While prisons do “cost” taxpayers money, Amerikans benefit directly,
indirectly and psychologically from the criminal injustice system. There
is a lot of money being made off the system, not by exploiting prisoner
labor, but in the form of public employee salaries. In Pennsylvania, for
instance, prison guards are among the state’s highest paid employees.(1)
And in many states these jobs are so important, the guard unions will
successfully fight against any prison closures, even when there aren’t
enough prisoners to fill the cells. Meanwhile, prisoners are doing much
of the maintenance work in these institutions, for little or no pay. In
the vast majority of U.$. prisons, the state would need to hire more
people if they couldn’t use prisoners to help with prison operations.
In this article we will look at the relationship between prisoner labor
and the cost of running prisons. Our goal is to understand what work
prisoners are doing, what they are being paid, what the impact of that
work is, and how battles around prisoner labor can be a progressive part
of the fight against the imperialist criminal injustice system.
This winter MIM(Prisons) conducted a survey of ULK readers
regarding prison labor, in part in response to many organizations’
recent focus on this topic. The results are what we believe to be the
most comprehensive dataset on prison labor in the United $tates.
In our 2009 issue
on this topic, we reported on prison labor in 11 states and the Federal
system, representing over half the country’s prison population. In 2018,
we received reports from 20 state systems and the Federal Bureau of
Prisons. This survey far exceeds our 2009 survey in content and
consistency. This article will present our preliminary results, with the
full report to come in a later, more in-depth publication on the
economics of the U.$. prison system.
How many prisoners have jobs?
Overall, 44% of prisoners have a job assignment, which includes school
and other programming in some states. This varied greatly between
prisons, from less than 1% to a maximum of 100% where working is
mandatory. Of those who do work, most are engaged in work related to
maintaining the prison itself.
What do prisoners do?
The chart below shows results from our survey showing at least 63% of
prisoners engaged in prison maintenance. There is a significant “Other”
category that may or may not fall into prison maintenance. While our
survey results so far show 25% of prisoners working in agriculture or
industry, this does not correspond with other information available.
UNICOR, the state-run industries for the Federal Bureau of Prisons
(BOP), accounts for less than 7% of those held by the BOP. Yet UNICOR is
the biggest user of prisoners in the country, with half the revenue of
all other state-run industries combined.
While our results confirmed a majority working in maintenance of
prisons, we believe this to be greatly underestimated and will work to
refine our figures. Meanwhile the three biggest prison states only use
2-6% of their prison population in their state-run industries.
How much are prisoners paid?
Working prisoners mostly fall into two categories: prison maintenance
and state-owned industries. The latter generally offers higher wages.
Below are averages for all U.$. prisons from a Prison Policy Initiative
survey of state agencies(2):
maintenance
industries
low
high
low
high
0.14
0.63
0.33
1.41
Our statistical analysis of low and high wages by state matched up quite
closely with the Prison Policy Initiative survey, with many states being
right on. This helped us confirm the numbers reported by our readers,
and substantiates the Prison Policy Initiative data set, which covers
every state and comes from state sources.
From our data we can say that almost half of prisoners who work in the
United $tates make $0.00. Generally in lieu of pay, 43% of jobs in our
survey offer credits of some sort (usually promising time off their
sentence). Though states like Texas are notorious for these credits
being meaningless or not applied. About 11% of prisoners who work do so
for neither pay nor even the promise of credits, according to our
preliminary results.
Who do prisoners work for?
The state.
The portion of prisoners working for private industries is very small.
We’ve long been frustrated with the outdated, self-referential, or
complete lack of citations used by most when writing about private
companies using prison labor.(3) Our initial results only returned 4.3%
of prison jobs being attributed to a private company, and of those who
produce a product, 1.8% being sold to private companies. While we will
continue to tally and interpret our results, these are in the ball park
of what we can infer from a literature search of what is going on in
prisons across the United $tates.
As John Pfaff pointed out in eir book
Locked
In, “Public revenue and public-sector union lobbying are far more
important [financial and political engines behind prison growth].” These
state prison industries are becoming sources of revenue for state
budgets. This could be worse than private corporations lobbying for more
imprisonment. It’s the very state that decides policy that is directly
benefiting financially.
A U.$. Proletariat?
Of all the so-called “workers” in the United $tates, prisoners, along
with non-citizen migrants, are some of the only people who face working
conditions comparable to the Third World. OSHA has no real ability to
enforce in prisons, and in some cases prisoners do hazardous jobs like
recycling electronics or the tough field work, that many migrants
perform. A recent expose of a “Christian Alcoholics & Addicts in
Recovery (CAAIR)” program in Oklahoma documented that prisoners were
promised drug treatment but when they joined the program were forced to
work in chicken processing plants. The prisoners suffered gnarled hands,
acid burns, injuries from machines and serious bacterial infections.(4)
While this is only a tiny minority of prisoners, the fact that they are
susceptible to such conditions does speak to the closeness this class of
people is to the Third World proletariat.
While at first glance the pay rates above clearly put U.$. prisoners
with full time jobs in the exploited classes, we must consider that by
default prisoners’ material needs are covered by the state. However,
there are still some basic needs that are not covered in many prisons.
Many prisoners face conditions with insufficient food, exorbitant
co-pays for medical care, and a requirement to purchase hygiene items,
educational materials and other basic necessities. And for the lumpen
who don’t have money in the bank or families who can cover these needs,
pay for work in prison is essential.
Labor Subsidizes State Budgets
But even where prisoners are expected to pay for these basic necessities
and are not paid enough to cover the costs, we don’t find net profit for
the state. In spite of prisoners’ work, facilities are still run at a
huge financial loss to the state, and profits from prisoner labor are
going to subsize the state budget. Sure lots of individual guards and
other prison staff are making good money, and corporations are also
cashing in by selling products to the prison and to prisoners. But none
of this is coming from prisoner labor. Prisoner labor is just helping to
cut the costs a bit for the state. Below we lay out our calculations on
this question.
Ultimately, we’re talking about a criminal injustice system that costs
$80 billion a year. There are profits from the 4.3% of prisoners who
work for private industries. But most of the revenue comes from
state-run prison industries. These state-run industries bring in a
revenue of $1.5 billion a year.(5) At a generous profit rate of 10%,
that would be $150 million in net gain, or 0.2% of costs. Because so
many prisoners aren’t paid or are paid very low wages we could even
double that profit rate and still have a very small gain relative to the
cost of prisons.
Another way to look at this calculation is to consider the costs to
house one prisoner compared to the potential revenue they generate when
working full time. It costs about $29k/yr to house a Federal prisoner.
If these prisoners are leased out to private companies for $10/hr and
the state keeps all the money, the state only makes about $20k, still
losing money on the deal. Obviously, when the state undercharges for
labor, private companies can make a profit. But that profit is
subsidized by the state, which has to pay for prisoners housing and
food, with the greatest expense being in how to actually keep people
locked inside.
We can also calculate savings to the state from prisoner labor using our
survey numbers. We chose $10 per hour below as a rough compromise
between the Federal minimum wage, and a typical CO’s hourly wage. In
reality, no U.$. citizen would work maintaining prisons for minimum
wage. And a negligible number of COs would bring themselves to do
something “for” prisoners, such as cleaning their showers. If
non-prisoners were needed to maintain prison facilities, we suspect only
migrant workers would be up for this task.
Another consideration is that jobs in prison are mostly used to keep
people busy (i.e. keep people not reading, and not organizing). If
paying “freeworld” people to do these jobs, they would certainly hire
many fewer employees than they have prisoners doing the same tasks.
These calculations are primarily to demonstrate magnitude, not actual
budget projections.
62% of 800 thousand prisoners (percentage with state-run jobs) = 496
thousand prisoner workers
150 hours/mo work on average * 12 months of work = 1,800 hours of
work
So we estimate that hiring non-prisoners to do the work that prisoners
do would cost about $8.9 billion, which adds up to an additional 10% of
the overall costs of running prisons. That’s a sizeable increase in
costs, but prisons are still far from profitable. We can add the two
numbers above together to estimate the total earnings + savings to the
state from using prisoner labor. That total is still less than $10
billion. Bottom line: the state is still losing $80 billion a year,
they’re just saving at most $9 billion by having prisoners work and
earning back another $150 million or so of that $80 billion, through
exploitation.
Those arguing that a massive prison labor strike will shut down the
prisons may be correct in the short term, to the extent that some
prisons which rely heavily on prison labor will not be able to
immediately respond. But that certainly doesn’t mean prisoners being
released. More likely it means a complete lockdown and round the clock
johnnies. And historically states have been quite willing to pour money
into the criminal injustice system, so a 10% increase in costs is not
that far-fetched. On the other hand, states are even more willing to cut
services to prisoners to save money. So the requirement to hire outside
staff instead of using prisoner labor could just as likely lead to even
further cuts in services to prisoners.
History of Prison Labor in U.$.
In 1880, more than 10,000 New Afrikans worked in mines, fields and work
camps as part of the convict lease system in the South. This was shortly
after the creation of the 13th Amendment, and eased the transition for
many industries which made use of this prison labor. In the North prison
industries were experimented with around this time, but imprisonment
costs prevented them from being profitable. And in response labor unions
began opposing the use of prison labor more and more. By the Great
Depression, opposition was stronger and the government banned the use of
prison labor for public works projects.(5)
In 1934, the Federal Prison Industries, or UNICOR, was formed as a way
to utilize prison labor for rehabilitation and state interests without
competing with private industry. This protection for private industry
was ensured with strict restrictions on UNICOR including limiting them
to selling only to the states. This has maintained the primary form of
what might be considered productive labor in U.$. prisons. UNICOR does
function as a corporation aiming to increase profits, despite its tight
relationship to the state. While state agencies used to have to buy from
UNICOR, this is no longer the case, making it fit better into Marx’s
definition of productive labor. Those running the prisons for the state,
whether public employees or prisoners preparing meals, would not fall
into what Marx called productive labor because neither are employed by
capital.
Starting in the 1970s, there has been legislation to loosen restrictions
on prison labor use by private industry.(5) (see Alaska House Bill 171
this year) However, we could not find in our research or our survey any
substantiation to claims of a vast, or growing, private employment of
prisoners in the United $tates.
The Future of Prison Labor
The key to all of these battles is keeping a focus on the national
liberation struggles that must be at the forefront of any revolutionary
movement today. There are Amerikan labor organizers who would like to
use the prisoner labor movement to demand even higher wages for the
labor aristocracy. These organizers don’t want low-paid prisoners to
replace high-paid petty bourgeois workers. This might seem like a great
opportunity for an alliance, but the interests of the labor aristocracy
is very much counter to national liberation. They are the mass base
behind the prison craze. They would be happy to see prisoners rot in
their cells. It’s not higher pay for prisoners that they want, it’s
higher pay for their class that the labor aristocracy wants. On the
other hand, the prison movement is intricately tied up in the
anti-colonial battle, by the very nature of prisons. And to move the
needle towards real progress for humynity, we must reinforce this tie in
all of our work. This means we can’t allow the labor aristocracy to
co-opt battles for prisoner workers’ rights and wages.
While U.$. caselaw does not recognize prisoners as employees, there
continue to be new lawsuits and arguments being made to challenge prison
labor in various ways.(6) We see these challenges to certain aspects of
the law on unpaid labor as reformist battles, unlikely to have much
bearing on the future of the prison movement. It is unlikely the courts
will see prison maintenance as labor requiring minimum wage protection.
So if changes are made in the law, we expect them to be very marginal in
scope, or to actually encourage more private employment. In contrast,
the
mass
mobilizations that have focused on pay, among other issues, are
advancing the struggle for prisoner humyn rights by organizing the
masses in collective action.(7)
While half of prisoners work in some form, about half of them aren’t
paid. And this is because an income from work is not a condition of
survival when food, clothes and shelter are provided by the state.
However, we have noticed a trend (at least anecdotally) towards charging
people for different aspects of their own incarceration. The
narrowly-focused movement to amend the 13th Amendment could have the
consequence of expanding such charges, and actually making it affordable
for the state to imprison more people because they are paying for their
own needs. While we concluded in ULK 60 that there
has
not been a strong decrease in imprisonment in response to the 2008
financial crisis, the rates have certainly stagnated, indicating
that we may be bumping up against financial limitations.(8) A scenario
like the above could undermine these financial limitations, unless they
are accompanied by laws prohibiting the garnishing of prisoner wages.
The delinking of Third World countries from the U.$. empire will create
more economic crisis as wealth flow from those countries to this one
will decrease. This would create more incentive for forced labor in
prisons that is productive, providing value for the rest of Amerikans.
This is what occurred in Nazi Germany, and could occur in a future
fascist scenario here. While we can definitively say the last prison
surge was not driven by profits, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.
And if it did, it would be a very dangerous thing. On that we agree with
the mass sentiment opposed to prison labor. But to date, in this
country, it’s been more expedient to exploit value from elsewhere. Even
the convict leasing of the late 1800s was the vestiges of an out-dated
system of exploitation that was eventually abandoned.
Very few prisoners in the United $tates are close to the means of
production. Therefore it is not the role of the prison movement to seize
the means of production, as it is for the proletariat. It is
our role to build independent institutions of the oppressed. And this
has often meant seizing institutions like churches, schools and even
prisons in the examples of Attica and Walpole. Ultimately, such acts
must build support for larger movements for national liberation.
Prisoners have an important role to play in these movements because they
are one of the most oppressed segments of the internal semi-colonies.
But they cannot achieve liberation alone.
05/05/2017 – I don’t know what prisons people are talking about when
they say that they don’t make a profit, because here the furniture
factory is almost all profit. The wood is donated from the free world on
a tax write off, they buy glue, paint, nails, etc. And the state pays
the guards. The electricity is paid on a scale. They pay a set price no
matter how much they use because they couldn’t afford to pay for all
that they use.
The bus shop where they rebuild buses in the free world is almost all
profit because the freeworld people pay $5 to bring it in to get fixed.
They pay only for materials and the prison furnishes free labor.
We have thousands of acres of land where we grow our own food plus
prisons ship stuff back and forth to other prisons. We have hogs,
chickens, cows and slaughter houses so our prisons in Texas are pretty
self-sufficient in food. So cost is the guards, the rest is profit here
in Texas. The little things like fuel, tractors and such is cost which
they are all paid for.
Here’s some more examples from Prison Legal News:
“Rep Alan Powell of Georgia says the state gets better results out of a
prisoner in 12 months hard labor than sitting in a cell. If the tax
payers pay to build roads or pick up trash, they let the prisoners do
it. In keeping with that philosophy, Georgia’s Department of
Transportation is using parole violators to clean up trash on highways
statewide. It costs the department millions of dollars every year to
pick up litter along Georgia’s 20,000 miles of state and federal roads.
…
“In October 2011, Camden County, Georgia considered a proposal to place
two prisoners in each of the county’s three firehouses. The prisoners
would respond to calls alongside firefighters, who would be responsible
for supervising them. It was hoped that using prisoners convicted of
non-violent offenses rather than hiring more firemen would save the
county $500,000 annually. The prisoners would not receive any pay but
would be eligible to be hired as firefighters five years after their
release….”
“In Washington, with a $1.5 billion apple crop at risk, state officials
ordered prisoners into the orchards in November 2011.”
I’ve been to prison 7 times in 4 states and I have 20 years done. I’m on
this side where you can actually see this kind of stuff happening from
day to day. They do illegal stuff all the time to cover up stuff, and
freeworld people never hear this because they try to keep it all on this
side of the fence.
“Colorado has used prison labor on private farms since 2005, when the
state enacted stricter immigration laws. Around 100 female prisoners
from La Vista Correctional Facility are employed weeding, picking and
packing onions and pumpkins under the supervision of prison guards. The
prisoners receive $9.60 an hour, of which about $5.60 goes to the state.
At least 10 Colorado farmers use prison labor….
“In Arizona, Wilcox-based Eurofresh Farms employs around 400 prisoners
through an Arizona Corrections Industries program. The prisoners are
paid close to minimum wage. …
“Florida is another state that has put its prisoners to work on farms,
including a program that began in 2009 which uses work crews from the
Berrydale Forestry Camp on a 650-acre publicly-funded farm at the
University of Florida’s West Florida Research and Education Center. The
prisoners grow collards, cabbage and turnips in the winter, while the
spring crop yields snap peas, corn and tomatoes.
“The arrangement provides the University with agricultural research and
supplies vegetables for prisoners’ meals. In 2010 the farm program
resulted in $192,000 in food cost savings at the prison and saved the
University $75,000 money that otherwise would have been spent on paid
staff.”
MIM(Prisons) responds: This letter is interesting in that it
provides an array of examples of what prisoners are doing in their jobs.
Just looking at agriculture, the examples from Texas and Florida involve
prisoners producing of the food they eat. This is not economic
exploitation. But what are the conditions that they have to work under?
We would support prisoners fighting for proper sun protection and water
breaks at such a job, but do not see a good economic reason to oppose
working to produce food for one’s own population.
In the other scenarios, the prisoners are producing food for private
companies, who are profiting off the sale of their product. In the
Colorado example prisoners are being “paid” $9.60, which is well over
the U.$. minimum wage, and well over the global average value of
labor.(2) So if the prisoner actually received all that money, ey would
be participating in the exploitation of the Third World proletariat,
receiving superwages. This becomes more true when you consider that the
prisoner has food and housing provided.
In reality, the Colorado prisoners receive less than half of the wage,
which is less than minimum wage. Arizona prisoners also receive minimum
wage. This puts them near the average value of labor. If they were paid,
say, $2 per hour, then we could say they are clearly making less than
the average value of their labor and being economically exploited.
By virtue of being in the heart of empire, we are all benefiting from
the economic system of imperialism. Even to some extent most U.$.
prisoners are better off, compared to life in the Third World. It is
this reality that makes battles over wages and labor organizing in
general rarely a progressive battle in this country. It is only when
talking about populations who do not enjoy full citizenship rights, such
as prisoners and migrants, that we can even consider progressive wage
battles.
Seven out of every ten parolees will be arrested sometime after their
release. Nearly half will return to prison someday. The plague of
recidivism hangs over every releasee’s future like the scythe of the
grim reaper coming to cut short their potential beyond the concrete
walls, iron bars, and razor-wire of the perpetually proliferating
injustice system. The very dehumanizing experience of imprisonment
itself plays a significant role in criminal conditioning. For many, it
is the influencing factor of imprisonment that detrimentally affects
them the greatest. Many learn from those mistakes of their past and some
don’t. For those with the ability to endure the physical and
psychological terrors of “doing time,” the lack of skills acquired
leaves them with few options other than crime for economic survival
after release and leaves the parole board wondering whether or not it
made the right decision in granting parole in the first place.
More often than not, it is overlooked as to what may have led to
someone’s imprisonment and what may be done to help them overcome the
struggles or obstacles in their path and in order for them to have a
successful reintegration into society. The feeling of defeat is often a
temporary condition, but there is never a better measure of what a
person is than when they’re absolutely free to choose. Removing the
individual’s choice leads to a lack of inspiration and motivation to
overcome one’s struggles, and they eventually give up hope. Giving up is
what makes the temporary condition of defeat permanent. Treat a man as
he is, and he will remain as he is; treat a man as he can and should be,
and he will become as he can and should be.
In prisons the use of manual labor is considered by several states to be
rehabilitative for those given the duty of performing labor that could
be done by an advancement in technology through farming equipment. In
all actuality, this manual labor is of no use to the prisoner and
further hinders true rehabilitation. More money is put into prisons,
county jails, and other state penal institutions than there is put into
the actual rehabilitation of the prisoners. The addition of more
educational programs throughout the state penal institutions would serve
a greater good and present people with more opportunities for a
successful reintegration into society. “Hoe squad” and “regional
maintenance” are a hindrance to the efforts to rehabilitate criminal
behavior and thinking modification efforts of the individual prisoners.
Forcing a prisoner to perform such tasks of manual farming and regional
clean-up to replace that of existing farm equipment and jobs that are
the responsibility of our city labor forces, and without an incentive
for possible job placement upon release, serves no greater purpose to
the individual prisoner and proves to be more dehumanizing than
rehabilitative. It has been declared by many that we can change our
circumstances by a mere change of our attitudes, but when placed under
duress with no choice in the matter there becomes no room for progress.
In regards to rehabilitation, it should and must be the objective of our
state government and legislature to seek out better avenues by which to
lower our states’ recidivism rates, and use education as an avenue by
which to rehabilitate our states’ prisoners. The person everyone wants
returning to their community is an educated, empowered taxpayer who has
the skills to help make our society safe and healthy.
As an ex-convict, I understand the limitations placed on our states’
prison populations by the use of “hoe squad” and “regional maintenance”
as a form of rehabilitation. The value of post-secondary correctional
education programs prove to be very beneficial. As this article is
written, I am in progress of putting together business plans for an
outreach program entitled “A New Leaf Outreach Program” aka “My
Brothers’ Place” that will serve as an avenue by which convicts /
ex-convicts and parolees / probationers, as well as the community, may
come together and organize our knowledge – not denying one another the
opportunity to teach what we know and learn what we may not know – and
bring about a solution to our society’s problems.
One may choose to be a part of the problem or choose to be a part of the
solution. Regardless of one’s past mistakes, one always chooses to be a
part of the solution. Once you are challenged, you find something in
yourself. Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records.
Success is based upon how one rises above his defeats.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This writer explains well the importance
of education for prisoners and the uselessness of many of the “jobs”
programs that currently exist. This failure of the work programs is
specific to the criminal injustice system that seeks to control
populations rather than educate and rehabilitate.
In communist China under Mao we have examples of prisons where people
were sent for genuine rehabilitation and education. These prisons
integrated work programs for the prisoners, to help them contribute
productive labor to society and learn skills they might use on the
outside. When prisoners were released in China it was after undergoing
intensive education, which included reading many books and discussing
these books with others. This process of study and
criticism/self-criticism helped them see why their actions that harmed
other people were wrong, and giving them a sense of purpose to their
lives that did not involve harming others.
All of this occurred within the greater context of a society where
everyone was given a role, and expected to participate in transforming
society. We can’t expect the imperialists to implement such a
progressive system because it would be counter to their use of prisons
for social control and impossible in a capitalist dog-eat-dog society.
But we can, as this writer says, build together to be part of the
solution. We can build our own educational programs, study groups, and
organizations independent of the oppressor. This is our job right now,
as we build to ultimately take down this corrupt and unjust system.
19 August 2017 – Hundreds rallied outside the White House today for the
“Millions for Prisoners’ Human Rights March.” The event was organized by
U.$. prisoners and outside groups to focus on the issue of the 13th
Amendment, which allows for the slavery of convicted felons in the
United $tates. During the march to the White House, the most common
signs were: “Abolish Mass Incarceration”, “End Racist Prison Slavery”
and Industrial Workers of the World membership cards. The latter were
hard to read for the casual observer and did not reinforce the message
of the march. There was one red, black and green flag, and
representatives of the Republic of New Afrika in attendance.
While more than half of the participants were local, people from many
states were in attendance, including New York, Pennsylvania, Florida,
South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, California and even Alaska. The
crowd was a mix of movement elders, formerly incarcerated people,
self-described “socialist” organizations and many youth for whom this
was their first participation in the prison movement.
Last weekend’s neo-nazi march, and murder of a young womyn, in nearby
Charlottesville, Virginia was a motivator for a number of people to come
out today. Some were there because of prisoners who had told them about
the rally and asked them to participate. On the one hand this
demonstrates the ability of prisoners to provide leadership to people on
the outside. But these people were reachable by prisoners because they
were involved in the movement already and the misnamed “Millions” for
Prisoners rally proved the goals of the organizers to be a bit loftier
than what was achieved.
In contrast to the hundreds in D.C., the so-called “Free Speech” rally
in Boston today brought out tens of thousands of counter-demonstrators.
Of course, they had the benefit of free advertising from all of the
corporate news networks. The sight of hundreds of torch-wielding white
men marching, chanting Nazi slogans, last weekend was rightfully jarring
to many. Yet, innocent Black and Brown men are much more likely to die
at the hands of the police or prison guards at this time than at the
hands of a neo-nazi (that isn’t employed by the state).
“Prisoner Lives Matter!” was one chant that rang true in D.C. For if
there is any group whose lives are at risk, and whose unnecessary deaths
receive little attention, in this country more than New Afrikan people
in general, it is prisoners.
People at the march reported that some prisons had visiting shut down or
were on lockdown today to prevent any group demonstrations on the
inside. This is another example of why MIM(Prisons) thinks the First
Amendment is a more important battle front than the Thirteenth. Just the
idea that prisoners might organize a protest is enough to trigger state
repression. Organized prisoners are the lynch-pin to a meaningful prison
movement, so the right to organize must be at the forefront.
When this correspondent asked participants what the most important issue
in the prison movement was, many weren’t sure because they were new to
it. Many had a hard time picking just one issue because there are so
many things wrong with the U.$. injustice system. But the one response
that was more popular than ending slavery in prisons, was the
disproportionate arrest, sentencing, imprisonment and mistreatment of
oppressed nations. While almost always phrased as “race” or “people of
color”, it does seem that the national contradiction is at the heart of
what people see as wrong with prisons in the United $tates. Even the
focus on the 13th Amendment was regularly tied to the history of slavery
of New Afrikans by speakers. One speaker called prisons the “new
plantation”, which is true in that they were both institutions to
control the New Afrikan semi-colony. But one was an economic powerhouse
fueling global imperialism, while the other is a money pit that the
prison movement aims to make a liability to the imperialists.
Perhaps an even bigger distinction was in the answers given by recently
imprisoned people. Their focus was on their struggles upon release and
the needs of those recently released. One New Afrikan man talked about
his mother dying while he was in prison and him not even knowing at
first. He got the news in such a callous way he didn’t even believe it
at first. To this day he has not figured out where his mother’s body is.
Yet he has been out of prison for two years and is already working for
the mayor’s office providing release support and doing motivational
speaking.
It is a good thing that the state is doing more to provide services to
recently-released prisoners. But we still need programs for those who
dedicate themselves to changing the system. The state can’t provide
that. And it can’t serve self-determination for the oppressed. There is
much work to be done to build bridges to revolutionary political
organizing for comrades being released all over the country. And
ultimately, as the state knows and demonstrates, the only successful
release programs are those that are led and run by releasees themselves.
September 9, 2016 will be the fifth annual Day of Peace and Solidarity
demonstration in prisons across the United $tates. This is an
opportunity for prisoners to commemorate the anniversary of the Attica
uprising and draw attention to abuse of prisoners across the country
through a 24-hour day of education and building peace, where some units
will exercise a work stoppage and fast. The annual demonstration was
initiated in 2012 by an organization in the United Front for Peace in
Prisons (UFPP), and has been taken up as an annual UFPP event, with
people participating all across the country.
This demonstration aligns with the UFPP principle to build unity among
prisoners who have a common interest in fighting the oppression of the
criminal injustice system. Prisoners are taking the 24 hours to engage
in solidarity building and education, ceasing all prisoner-on-prisoner
hostilities. This is a small, but meaningful step in building a United
Front among prisoner organizations and individuals committed to the
anti-imperialist movement. It is an opportunity to come together,
publicize the UFPP and assess our progress. To stand in a united front,
we do not need to agree on every political issue, but we must come
together united around core principles to build and stand as one. The
unity building starts well before September 9 for those who are engaging
others to participate in the action. It is a long slow process of
education and organizing to build the anti-imperialist movement.
We recently learned about another call to action for 9 September 2016, a
“Call
to Action Against Slavery in America”.(1) The people who issued this
call wrote: “On September 9th of 2016, we will begin an action to shut
down prisons all across this country. We will not only demand the end to
prison slavery, we will end it ourselves by ceasing to be slaves.” This
call for a country-wide work stoppage in prisons coincides with the UFPP
solidarity demonstration and so we take this opportunity to comment on
the similarities and differences.
First we want to say that we are always happy to see people taking up
organizing and trying to build unity behind bars. There are some very
good points taken in this call to action, particularly in the
recognition of the growing protests in prisons across the country and
the importance of this resistance. With our focus on building a United
Front among prisoners we would hope to work with these folks to broaden
our movement. We are not sure if the organizers were unaware of the work
the UFPP has been doing on a September 9 protest for five years, or if
they purposely decided to initiate a separate action due to
disagreements with the UFPP. Our attempts to reach out to organizers
have so far been unanswered.
Tactically, we are both promoting a commemoration of the Attica
uprising, and a work strike might be included in some prisoners’ plans
for the Day of Peace and Solidarity. While a one-day strike is more
symbolic than anything, we do see power in the ability of prisoners to
“shut down” facilities by not doing the work to keep them running for a
potentially longer period. However, the organizers behind this more
recent call are taking the work strike to the level of a line question,
which we have strong disagreements with. They focus on a work strike
because they are focused on abolishing what they see as “slavery” in
U.$. prisons. However, for Marxists, slavery is a specific economic
system that involves the ownership of people in order to exploit their
labor. Slaves have exchange value, just like other objects that are
bought and sold. This exchange value for people is the basis of a
horrible system that involves the capture and purchase of humyns. People
confuse prison labor with slavery because there are some significant
similarities: prison labor does involve workers receiving very little or
no pay, and like slaves prisoners are given housing, food and other
basic necessities while held in captivity. But we can see clearly that
there is no exchange value to prisoners because states must pay other
states to take their prisoners. This is the opposite of slavery where
people pay to buy slaves.
Further, in order to call prisoner labor slavery there must be
exploitation. We can see that this exploitation (prisons actually
profiting from prisoner labor) only exists for
a
tiny portion of U.$. prisoners.(2) States like Texas and Louisiana
do have significant productive industries reminiscent of the slave days.
But for most, this is not the reality. Prisons require huge infusions of
federal and state funds in order to operate. If they were making a
profit off of prisoners’ labor this drain on public funds would not be
required. Instead prisoner labor is only offsetting a small portion of
the operating cost.
Some people tell us this is just semantics, arguing about the definition
of a term rather than talking about the very real problem of prisons
torturing humyn beings while allowing the real criminals to run the
government and capitalist corporations. But this recent call for protest
against prison slavery underscores why these definitions are so
important. The organizers of the September 9 protest against slavery
wrote: “When we abolish slavery, they’ll lose much of their incentive to
lock up our children, they’ll stop building traps to pull back those who
they’ve released. When we remove the economic motive and grease of our
forced labor from the US prison system, the entire structure of courts
and police, of control and slave-catching must shift to accommodate us
as humans, rather than slaves.” This statement is not true, and it
ignores the economic reality of prisons which receive over $60 billion a
year in state and federal funds to cover operating costs. Why would the
government run a money losing business? Certainly not for economic gain!
The economic motive of slavery is not the driving force behind prisons.
And even if we don’t call it slavery, economics are not the reason we
have prisons. While it is true that lots of people get very high
salaries, and many companies make buckets of money by serving the prison
system, this is just a redistribution of profits taken from exploitation
of Third World workers. That’s why it has to come from the government
allocated to the prisons. And that $60 billion could be funneled into
any other project that provides jobs for the Amerikan labor aristocracy
just as easily and all those guards and other prison workers would be
just as happy. Prisons are a convenient way to redistribute imperialist
superprofits to the labor aristocracy within U.$. borders, but they are
definitely not the best option if economics were the sole consideration.
It is critical that activists and revolutionaries understand that
Amerika has built an enormous criminal injustice system as a tool of
social control. Prisons are used to lock up oppressed nations and
activists. The history of prisons in this country clearly demonstrates
this. We saw a huge rise in incarceration starting in 1974 after the
revolutionary movements of that time were targeted by the government.
Until that time there was a relatively low and stable rate of
imprisonment in this country. Then the lockup rate of First Nations, New
Afrikans and Chican@s rose to vastly disproportionate numbers relative
to whites starting in the 1970s. These historical events and economic
facts make it clear that Amerikkkan prisons are used for social control,
not for profits.
The organizers of the anti-slavery protest are misleading people into
believing that shutting down prison work will shut down prisons. It will
cause difficulties, and is a very valid tactic for exerting power as a
group. But prisoner labor itself is not the principal contradiction in
prison. We guarantee that if we were to reach the unity to wage an
extended work strike across U.$. prisons, that Amerika would figure out
how to keep the oppressed locked up.
We call this a failure to recognize the principal contradiction. In this
case we are talking about the thing that will best push forward the
prisoners’ fight against oppression. Fighting against something that
doesn’t exist (slavery) is certainly not the best way forward. But even
if we don’t call it slavery, fighting against prisoner labor as if the
end to prisoner work will put an end to prisons is also incorrect, and
will lead to a dead end. We see the need for unity among prisoner groups
and individuals as critical to building a solid anti-imperialist prison
movement. We think this addresses the real principal contradiction that
the prison movement faces between the collective interests of the
imprisoned lumpen and the individualist tendencies currently dominant
among that class. This is why we organize on September 9 to build a Day
of Peace and Solidarity. Get involved! Write to us for the September 9
Organizing Pack and get started building in your prison.
I am doing time and slave labor on the Wynne Unit in the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). This is an industry unit.
Millions of dollars worth of commodities are mass produced by prisoners
who receive no type of worthwhile compensation. These items consist of
vehicle registration stickers, license plates, mattresses that range
from Sealy Posturepedic to college dorm and prisoner beds. Signs are
produced for a wide range of functions, and there’s a computer recovery
warehouse that refurbishes used and discarded units to be sent to high
schools and hospitals.
It goes without saying that if everyone decided to lay it down the
powers that be would have a serious problem. Yet sadly enough out of the
2,200 prisoners housed here, the number would more than likely be in the
double digits only. You have those who don’t want to lose their clerk
job where they might get a few perks every now and then. Some in the
craft shop would put the craft shop first. I do understand why people
want to protect their “jobs,” but how much longer are we going to stand
by and be forced to witness the constant abuse of power?
I have been locked up in segregation unjustly. I’ve seen my brothers
lose their lives which may have been prevented if the COs acted as if
they gave a damn. Although we all know they don’t. So, we rise early
every morning, we are told to work “or else”, and god forbid you try to
utilize the option to go to school because you are expected to be at
work before sunrise even if you are trying to educate your mind and work
on your attitude.
It’s no secret that the TDCJ’s main concern all the way around is money.
Ironically our “great state’s” prison system is in the negative on funds
but will not hesitate to lock someone up over a bullshit parole
violation or something nonviolent like theft. And we are being punished
daily by the COs and administration who use their position as an
opportunity to abuse other human beings and get away with it. Our
so-called grievance system is a laugh-out-loud joke, just like TDCJ’s
good time and work time fiascos.
The reality is that if just one third of our prison population would
spend some of those phone minutes on educating our outside support
rather than crying about more money for holiday packs and new shoes
every 6 months, we might see some difference. Let people know how they
can help, without making TDCJ’s commissary richer. I like candy and
sodas as much as the next guy. What I don’t like is getting treated like
dog shit just because I’m trying to resolve a problem. The indigent mail
issue, the medical copay, the good time, work time and assaults on
inmates by guards are but a few of our long list of issues that are not
just going to disappear. We will not go quietly into that good night,
and we will not back down without a fight.
As a prisoner I see this slogan almost every day while being housed in
prison. It’s the slogan stamped onto the inner sole of every pair of PIA
shoes. Shoes made ultra-cheap due to the quality control that doesn’t
even exist. This is yet another way the state is saving a buck on our
comfort. When I first came to join the PIA, prison issue were brown hard
bottom boot, which they gave every convict coming out of reception.
Those boots not only provided PIA workers with a job but also others
prisoners with one as shoe shiners.
You might be thinking wow, what a low position. But if so, that’s only
because you weren’t here. The shoe shine, if he mastered the art, got
plenty of business and made however much he was willing to commit on
working for. His customers were not only convicts, they also were
Correction Officers usually of high rank and they paid well. Now PIA, by
cutting cost and operating with the use of low grade, no quality
materials, have wiped out several in-prison work assignments and legal
hustles or trade exchange. Those boots were made out of leather and so
there were leather hobby shops where prisoners were taught how to make
belts, wallets, medallions, use special machines and recycle the
unusable scraps from the boot line. Creating income, gifts for family,
and educating prisoners on how to use their resources.
Now we have low-quality, low-top generic canvas shoes that they expect
to fall apart within 90 days when you can get a new pair creating only
more pollution and waste. No one benefits from these PIA show factories
except those who work there, and I’d be willing to bet someone is lining
their pocket with tax-payer money through building these contracts with
under-the-table industries who supply such low grade materials. Another
bad effect is due to the fact positions at these factories are low in
volume. It establishes a classism among convicts, with PIA and private
contractors being the highest source of income legally in the joint.
Their workers became the ruling class as far as prisoners economics are
concerned, with them averaging $100 a month compared to the top culinary
assignment at $37 monthly, deducting 55% if they owe restitution before
they even receive it.
Ask yourselves what is 45% of 9 cents an hour or 45% of 23 cents an
hour? Then there’s the poor non-employed convict who is the on the
bottom when it comes to privileges by grand design of whom when it’s
time to unite and stand against any form of oppression are usually
always down, with nothing to lose. On the other hand the slave class is
divided amongst prisoners, the majority of this class talk about doing
something to make a change in conditions, pay, treatment, but when it’s
time to peacefully demonstrate by striking at work they simply won’t go
that far. A smaller number out of the slave class will, knowing this is
the only process towards change that works. The majority of the slave
class are youngsters who enjoy the movement their job provides and don’t
want to rock the boat. Now the PIA working prisoners by no means will
write in solidarity with the convicts in any class including their very
own but will both encourage a strike for equal pay and treatment in the
hopes of moving up, and others will report it directly to their masters
the Correctional Authorities in the hopes of building a stronger rapport
and gaining favor.
MIM(Prisons) responds:This comrade gives us a glimpse at some of
the contradictions facing prison organizers at the PIA prisons in
California. While there are some parallels between the prison system and
slavery, we have
critiqued
the use of the term “slavery” to refer to prisoners. This comrade’s
description talks about how the prisoners are pawns in a system that is
becoming ecologically wasteful, and likely benefitting bureacrats. The
wages, while minimal, also play a role for the state in helping control
and divide the population via petty economic interests. Battles for
higher wages in U.$. prisons can be progressive in putting pressure on
the economic viability of oppression. But generally, prison unions that
represent the interests of all prisoners must focus on more pressing and
common problems.
I’m presently in the hole (Administrative Segregation) for fighting for
my rights. My rights were violated when a CO pig cut my pay from $0.18
an hour to $0.13 an hour unjustly with no explanation. So I appealed
this issue via the 602 inmate appeal and I also put a citizen’s
complaint 832.5 on this pig. Before I went to the 602 hearing, another
pig, Anguianos’ partner, Martinez, tried to bribe me with my pay to sign
off on the 602. I refused and documented these encounters and put in a
602 on Martinez for reprisal/retribution just to have this documented in
case something happened and sure enough after I refused to sign off on
this the Sgt. pig threw his pen on the table and asked me why I would
not sign off. He said, “you got what you want, your pay is back at
$0.18.” I told him my rights were violated and I want it to be known I
want my voice heard!
After this, about a month later I was being harassed by two pigs due to
this issue, DeFranco and Vasquez. Long story short, they threw me on the
fence to put me down. Nice and calm I let them put me down without
incident, which made them more mad! The next thing I knew the pig
DeFranco put me in cuffs. I asked calmly why I was being put in cuffs.
He smiled in my face and told me I would find out.
They put me in a cage and shipped me down. Come to find out the dirty
pig planted a weapon on me resulting with me being put in the hole
pending DA referal and a SHU term. I put an 832.5 on both these pigs as
well for retaliation and I’m pushing for criminal charges to be brought
up on said pigs. I’m going to file a lawsuit on all three pigs once I’m
done going through the pigs’ appeal process, which we all know the
outocme of that! I make sure to make a paper trail to back up anything I
do so I have proof.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We commend this comrade’s tenacity for
fighting for justice. We do remind everyone that filing paperwork is
just one tactic, as the comrade says, we all know the outcome of that.
Without organizing prisoners as a group, even individual legal victories
do not lead to building any real change.
In California we have 55% of any incoming money taken away, then another
45% taken out under the cloak of obligatory fees. So if your family
sends $20 you get $8, minus another 45% and you are left with $5 and
some change. This is ridiculous and should be challenged just like the
amount of money a prisoner is paid an hour: 10-30 cents. Really if we
were on the street we’d get minimum wage. A business owner would be in
court if found out to be paying their employees 30 cents an hour.
The citizens have been led to believe prisoners don’t need money because
the state pays for everything. To these people I say eat our meals for 4
days and tell me if you don’t want more to eat. Here’s an example: if
your lips chap and skin drys and you go to the doctor for an ointment
they tell you that you have to buy that at canteen. Well if you don’t
have any money to go to canteen you’re shit out of luck. If you’re
lactose intolerant there’s no diet for that. They say just don’t eat
what you can’t eat. Well you do that and you’re shorting yourself of
mandatory calories you’re supposed to receive each day. Same with
allergies to fish, peanut butter, etc. The state doesn’t provide
deodorant and lotion and hair grease or shampoo. So what’s one to do?
The restitution is supposed to be for the victim. Do they get a check
every time the prison deducts money from money sent in? Hell no! People
wake up, we need to fight this money hungry place called prison which is
making a killing off our sweat and prisoner’s family sweat.
MIM(Prisons) responds: As we’ve
written
before, prisons across the country are paying prisoners pennies (or
nothing at all). This is not just a way to keep prisoners totally
dependent on their captors while locked up, but also makes it harder for
released prisoners to get on their feet. No one leaves prison with money
in their pockets. And we know that finding a job and housing as an
ex-con is far from easy. But the prison system is counting on this as
the revolving doors of incarceration help keep the prisons full and the
criminal injustice system employees earning good wages.
We don’t agree that the prison is “making a killing” off the labor of
prisoners and the family money. In reality prisons are a money-losing
operation subsidized by the state. The only people benefiting
financially are the employees with fat paychecks and the few private
enterprises that get to hire prisoners to do work that other Amerikans
don’t want or won’t do so cheaply. Prisons themselves don’t make a
profit, but lots of individuals and other corporations are benefiting
greatly from this huge subsidized humyn warehousing for social control.