[discuss-dan] Your response requested...Slave labor means big bucks for U.S. corporations]

["getmelissa@uswest.net" <getmelissa@uswest.net>]

What is going here????!!!!!

Dear members of the press and elected officials,

Many of us would appreciate your prompt response to this article below.

Thank you,

-melissa


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Slave labor means big bucks for U.S. corporations

   January 31, 2001
   By Michael Schwartz
   Daily Bruin
   U. California-Los Angeles

   (U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES -- It seemed like a normal factory closing. U.S.
   Technologies sold its electronics plant in Austin, Texas, leaving its
150 workers unemployed. Everyone figured they were moving the plant to
Mexico, where they would employ workers at half the cost. But six weeks
later, the electronics plant reopened in Austin in a nearby prison.

   At the same time, the United States blasts China for the the use of
prison slave labor, engaging in the same practice itself. Prison labor
is a pot of gold. No strikes, union organizing, health benefits,
unemployment insurance or workers' compensation to pay. As if exploiting
the labor of prison inmates was not bad enough, it is legal in the
United States to use slave labor. The 13th Amendment of the Constitution
states that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted
shall exist within the United States."

   There are approximately 2 million people behind bars in the United
States -- more than three times the number of prisoners in 1980. The
United States now imprisons more people than any other country in the
world. In fact, in the last 20 years California has constructed 21 new
prisons while in the same amount of time, it has built only one new
university. That statistic is even more astounding when we think about
the fact that it took California almost 150 years to build its first 12
prisons. Another five new prisons are under construction and plans are
in the works to build another 10.

   The question that needs to be answered is -- why? Why are prisons
such a booming business? The answer lies in the prison industrial
complex. At the same time that prisons clear the streets of those you
feel are a "threat" to society, prisons also offer jobs in construction,
guarding, administration, health, education and food service.

   Prisons in impoverished areas often end up with inmates from the
local area who had previously worked in the community. Often they were
laid off from a factory job that moved overseas and they turned to
alcohol or drugs, which ultimately landed them in prison. Others are
luckier and get a job in the prison. One of the fastest-growing sectors
of the prison industrial complex is private corrections companies.
Private prisons also have an incentive to gain as many prisoners as
possible and to keep them there as long as possible.

   Many corporations, whose products we consume on a daily basis, have
learned that prison labor can be as profitable as using sweatshop labor
in
   developing nations. You might have had a first-hand experience with a
prison laborer if you have ever booked a flight on Trans World Airlines,
since many of the workers making the phone reservations are prisoners.
Other companies that use prison labor are Chevron, IBM, Motorola,
Compaq, Texas Instruments, Honeywell, Microsoft, Victoria's Secret and
Boeing. Federal prisons operate under the trade name Unicor and use
their prisoners to make everything from lawn furniture to congressional
desks. Their Web site proudly displays "where the government shops
first."

   Federal safety and health standards do not protect prison labor, nor
do the National Labor Relations Board policies. The corporations do not
even have to pay minimum wage. In California, inmates who work for the
Prison
   Industrial Authority earn wages between 30 and 95 cents per hour
before
   required deductions for restitutions and fines.

   State Corrections agencies are even advertising their prisoners to
   corporations by asking these questions: "Are you experiencing high
employee turnover? Worried about the cost of employee benefits? Getting
hit by overseas competition? Having trouble motivating your work force?
Thinking about expansion space? Then the Washington State Department of
Corrections Private Sector Partnerships is for you."

   Prisons are being filled largely with the poor, the mentally ill,
people of color, drug addicts and many combinations of these
characteristics. They are not reserved for violent people who are
extremely dangerous to society.

   In fact, of the nearly 2 million prisoners, about 150,000 are armed
robbers, 125,000 are murderers and 100,000 are sex offenders. Prisons
are certainly not filled with corporate criminals who make up only 1
percent of our nation's prisons.

   In California, then-Gov. Pete Wilson signed the "three strikes and
you're out" law in 1994. The law states that if an offender has two or
more previous serious or violent felony convictions, the mandatory
sentence for any new felony conviction is 25 years to life. Though
people thought the three-strikes law was intended to protect society
from dangerous career criminals, the actual enactment of the law has
been dramatically different.

   Kendall Cooke was convicted under the three-strikes law for stealing
one can of beer with two previous convictions of theft. Clarence
Malbrough was sentenced to 25 years to life for stealing batteries, a
crime that would usually send someone to jail for about 30 days. Eddie
Jordan stole a shirt from a JC Penney store, Juan Murro attempted to
steal wooden pallets from a parking lot and Michael Garcia stole a
package of steaks from a grocery store. All of these people are facing
life in prison for petty theft. They are fueling the prison industry.
They are not the exception, either.

   Eighty-five percent of those sentenced under the law in California
faced prison for a nonviolent offense. Two years after the law went into
effect, there were twice as many people imprisoned under the
three-strikes law for possession of marijuana as for murder, rape and
kidnapping combined. More than 80 percent of those sentenced under the
three-strikes law are African-American and Latino.

   In the 1980s, Congress established several different mandatory
minimum
   sentences. These laws require offenders of certain crimes to receive
fixed sentences without parole. Mandatory sentences, especially for
drugs, are largely responsible for the ever-increasing number of people
behind bars in the United States. In May of 1998, drug defendants made
up 60 percent of the federal prison population, up from 25 percent in
1980. The disproportionate number of African Americans being sent to
prison for drug use, however, is largely due to racism in the actual
mandatory minimum laws themselves.

   Though crack and powdered cocaine are virtually the same drug (crack
is
   powder cocaine mixed with baking soda) possession of five grams of
crack gets you a mandatory five years in jail, while it takes 500 grams
of
   powdered cocaine to get this same sentence. The U.S. Sentencing
Commission reported that in 1995, whites accounted for 52 percent of all
crack users and African Americans, 38 percent. But just 4.1 percent of
those sentenced for crack offenses are white, while 88 percent are
African Americans. Seventy percent of our nation's prisons are made up
of African Americans.

   You now know that they are there through a variety of unjust racist
laws. Corporations are happily using these people for slave labor, which
is perfectly legal under the constitution. Almost 2 million human beings
are now locked up in our nation's prisons. The vast majority are not
there
   because they are murderers, rapists or other violent people. They are
there because prisons are a business in this country, whether we're
talking about private prisons or private companies using prison labor.
The next time you think of prison slave labor you don't have to think of
China, think of the United States. And go take a look at the 13th
Amendment.

   (C) 2001 Daily Bruin via U-WIRE

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