US prison labor tied to some of the world’s most popular food brands

A hidden intricate web links hundreds of popular food brands to work done by US prisoners. A two-year Associated Press (AP) investigation found that everything from grains, meat, eggs, and milk had been grown, harvested, or produced by incarcerated people and their labor finds its way into the supply chains of some of the most recognized brands and largest food companies in the world. The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime. AP spoke to prisoners who were working on plantation soil, many were making pennies an hour. Some getting nothing at all. Prisoners can sometimes be punished for refusing to work, even thrown into solitary confinement. And if they are hurt on the job, they often have little recourse. The agriculture sector is just a fraction of the overall prison labor industry, which includes everything from public works to stamping license plates. “What the inmates learn while they’re here, they’re learning a skillset. […] They’re learning to pay back their debt to society,” said Brevard County Sheriff, Wayne Ivey. But prisons and corporations benefit from inmate labor. The goods wind up in the supply chains of giants like Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, and Costco just to name a few. Andrea Armstrong, a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans said, “They aren’t eligible for workman’s compensation. Nor are they protected by other worker safety laws because they’re not considered quote-unquote employees.” “We’re gonna have to figure out different ways to make our system a better system instead of just exploiting labor and then calling it crime prevention,” said Curtis Davis, Prison reform advocate, who served more than 25 years at Angola. The AP also found American prison labor linked to the supply chains of multinational companies such as Cargill that export goods all over the world. This is happening even though Washington has banned imports and even seized goods that were produced by prison or forced labor abroad. Several companies told the AP they have policies in place restricting suppliers from using incarcerated workers. Cargill acknowledged buying goods from American prison farms and said it would determine the next steps. This article was provided by The Associated Press.