We love our free labor

Part of capitalism is to exploitative. There is really nothing that can be done about that; frequently it manifests as a race to the bottom of the labor market. Corporations set up factories with relaxed labor law or in countries where they can pay very little.

So while, Ohio and Wisconsin are beating back anti-labor bills and laws, we have a resurgence of sweatshop of course I'm referring to those abroad, but also state side. However, LaborNotes (Steve Fraser and Joshua Freeman) did a piece on prison labor. The privatization of the prisons has resulted in a host of various concerns and issues, but they have also provided a group of workers who have been coerced and have no rights.

The Corrections Corporation of American and G4S, two prison privatizers, sell labor to the likes of Chevron, Bank of American, AT&T, and IBM. This labor is provided for below minimum wage. In many states these companies are able to lease factories in prisons and prisoners to work outside. The prisoners make furniture, work in calls centers, taking hotel reservations, working in slaughterhouses, etc. They get paid between .93 and 4.73 per day.

The prisoners are easy to control and have no political rights. Prison labor provides companies with an opportunity to depress costs, prevent bankruptcies, deflation, etc. The article provides a historical background on prison labor, how it has changed, and not changed.

Prison labor have no rights and civil liberties, stripped of the right to vote, the right to protest and organize. Additionally, these companies are benefiting from government subsides and tax incentives so they can make use of prison labor.

The US imprisons 2.3 million people; we have the highest incarceration rate in the world. As a result of companies moving more and more toward using labor abroad has resulted in workers (specifically African American workers) are having trouble getting by. Corporations then realized that prison labor would be cheap and in their own backyard.

Prison labor is bad for labor in general; it allows employers to drive down wages. Anyway, we know that when able corporations will choice to exploit people, whether in prison or not. Additionally, we also recognize that when laborers are unable to organize the employers will exploit them. All of this means, that if we do not see prisoners are less than human they should be entitled to the same rights as free citizens. That being said with "right to work" and the anti-labor bills popping up everywhere, perhaps we're glimpsing into the future where no one has labor rights and civil liberties.