DoomsdaysCW#Alabama profits off #prisoners who work at McDonald’s but deems them too dangerous for #parole
"No state has a longer, more profit-driven history of contracting prisoners out to private companies than Alabama. With a sprawling labor system that dates back more than 150 years — including the brutal #ConvictLeasing era that replaced #slavery — it has constructed a template for the #commercialization of #MassIncarceration."
By ROBIN MCDOWELL and MARGIE MASON
Updated 5:10 PM EST, December 20, 2024
DADEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A storm was looming when the inmate serving 20 years for armed robbery was assigned to transport fellow prisoners to their jobs at private manufacturers supplying goods to companies like Home Depot and Wayfair. It didn’t matter that Jake Jones once had escaped or that he had failed two drug and alcohol tests while in lockup — he was unsupervised and technically in charge.
By the time Jones was driving back to the work release center with six other incarcerated workers, it was pelting rain. Jones had a reputation for driving fast and some of his passengers said he was racing along the country road, jamming to music in his earbuds. Suddenly, the transport van hit a dip and swerved on the wet pavement, slamming into a tree."
#USPol #HumanRights #Prisoners #ForProfitPrisons #USPenalSystem
Alabama has earned hundreds of millions of dollars from prison labor since 2000.
No state has a longer, more profit-driven history of contracting prisoners out to private companies than Alabama. Best Western, Bama Budweiser and Burger King are among the more than 500 businesses to lease incarcerated workers from one of the most violent, overcrowded and unruly prison systems in the U.S. in the past five years alone, The Associated Press found as part of a two-year investigation into prison labor. The cheap, reliable labor force has generated more than $250 million for the state since 2000 — money garnished from prisoners’ paychecks. Kelly Betts of the corrections department defended the work programs, calling them crucial to the success of inmates preparing to leave prison, though she added some of the incarcerated workers are serving life without parole.