corporations find their dream worker under massive for profit prison system

rickyb

Well-Known Member
as system of a down said "theyre tryin ta build a prison..."

Some states have begun to charge prisoners rent. This gouging is burying many prisoners and their families in crippling debt, debt that prisoners carry when they are released from prison. The United States has 2.3 million people in prison, 25 percent of the world’s prison population, although we are only 5 percent of the world’s population.We have increased our prison population by about 700 percent since 1970. Corporations control about 18 percent of federal prisoners and 6.7 percent of all state prisoners. And corporate prisons account for nearly all newly built prisons. Nearly half of all immigrants detained by the federal government are shipped to corporate-run prisons. And slavery is legal in prisons under the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It reads: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”

The corporate state seeks to reduce all workers at home and abroad to the status of prison labor. Workers are to be so heavily controlled that organizing unions or resistance will become impossible. Benefits, pensions, overtime are to be abolished. Workers who are not slavishly submissive to the will of corporate power will be dismissed. There will be no sick days or paid vacations. No one will be able to challenge unsafe and physically difficult working conditions. And wages will be suppressed to keep workers in poverty. This is the goal of corporate power. The 1 million prisoners employed at substandard wages by corporations inside prisons are, in the eyes of our corporate masters, the ideal workers. And those Americans who ignore the plight of prison labor and refuse to organize against it will increasingly find prison working conditions replicated outside prison walls.


Corporations currently exploiting prison labor include Abbott Laboratories, AT&T, AutoZone, Bank of America, Bayer, Berkshire Hathaway, Cargill, Caterpillar, Chevron, the former Chrysler Group, Costco Wholesale, John Deere, Eddie Bauer, Eli Lilly, ExxonMobil, Fruit of the Loom, GEICO, GlaxoSmithKline, Glaxo Wellcome, Hoffmann-La Roche, International Paper, JanSport, Johnson & Johnson, Kmart, Koch Industries, Mary Kay, McDonald’s, Merck, Microsoft, Motorola, Nintendo, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Quaker Oats, Sarah Lee, Sears, Shell, Sprint, Starbucks, State Farm Insurance, United Airlines, UPS, Verizon, Victoria’s Secret, Wal-Mart and Wendy’s.

A prisoner in New Jersey makes, on average, $1.20 for eight hours of work, or about $28 a month. Those incarcerated in for-profit prisons earn as little as 17 cents an hour. Over a similar period, phone and commissary corporations have increased fees and charges often by more than 100 percent.

JPay is a corporation that deals in privatized money transfers to prisoners. It controls money transfers for about 70 percent of the prison population. The company charges families that put money into prisoners’ accounts additional service fees of as much as 45 percent.

Corporations, which have turned mass incarceration into a huge revenue stream and which have unchecked political and economic power, have no intention of diminishing their profits. And in a system where money has replaced the vote, where corporate lobbyists write legislation and the laws, where chronic unemployment and underemployment, along with inadequate public transportation, sever people in marginal communities from jobs, and where the courts are a wholly owned subsidiary of the corporate state, this demands a sustained, nationwide revolt.

The corporate state seeks to reduce all workers at home and abroad to the status of prison labor. Workers are to be so heavily controlled that organizing unions or resistance will become impossible. Benefits, pensions, overtime are to be abolished. Workers who are not slavishly submissive to the will of corporate power will be dismissed. There will be no sick days or paid vacations. No one will be able to challenge unsafe and physically difficult working conditions. And wages will be suppressed to keep workers in poverty. This is the goal of corporate power. The 1 million prisoners employed at substandard wages by corporations inside prisons are, in the eyes of our corporate masters, the ideal workers. And those Americans who ignore the plight of prison labor and refuse to organize against it will increasingly find prison working conditions replicated outside prison walls.

And, as in the wider society, while members of a tiny, oligarchic corporate elite each are paid tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars annually, the workers who generate these profits live in misery.
 

BrownArmy

Well-Known Member
Thanks.

I'm not sure this is the proper forum.

I think you should go back to school, work your way up, and become a Professor.

I wish you luck.

This current post, like most of your posts, is generally correct, but your posts are mostly being lost here...wheat amongst the chaff, so to speak.

As well, I'm not sure you have enough real-world experience to post the things you're posting with any sort of validity - you've seen the 'cut-and-paste' crowd here, and unfortunately you're in that class.

I mean this in the nicest possible way that I can.

At some point, when you start to make your way in the world, you will encounter situations that will cause you to question the fervency of your current beliefs.

By no means am I trying to dissuade you from whatever mission you're on, I'm simply saying:

Either go to school or get a job. At some point you'll realize that the 'man' was correct about a few things, at least.
 

BrownArmy

Well-Known Member
P.S. I love 'System Of A Down'.

And I love their politics...

However: the videos? the slick tours? the etc...?

Capitalist bitches...
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
If Realbrown can post here, and I agree he should as well, then I see no problem with rickyb posting whatever moves him. What people take or don't from his or any other post is up to them but if someone posts within the framework of BC's ToS, I say bring it on.

As to UPS using prison labor, I have seen a few folks that did look like they just came from death row, and that was in the office! ;)

BTW: This subject of private corp. prisons has been discussed way back.
 

BrownArmy

Well-Known Member
If Realbrown can post here, and I agree he should as well, then I see no problem with rickyb posting whatever moves him. What people take or don't from his or any other post is up to them but if someone posts within the framework of BC's ToS, I say bring it on.

As to UPS using prison labor, I have seen a few folks that did look like they just came from death row, and that was in the office! ;)

BTW: This subject of private corp. prisons has been discussed way back.

I love both Realbrown and rickyb's posts.

rickyb is like my younger cousin, Realbrown is like my weird uncle...
 

BrownArmy

Well-Known Member
Agreed.

Synthesis and recombination of various valid sources is a proper way to make a point.

Which is why I suggest rickyb should go to college.

rickyb will get a much better education in college (and will be more sincerely challenged) then anything rickyb will ever get on the BC.

Honestly, rickyb's BC feedback so far has been poor.

That won't change in school, but maybe rickyb will find a good professor.

Just a thought.

(All of this is based on my assumption that rickyb is a young person...)
 

Babagounj

Strength through joy
Maybe rickyb should have his own place to post , on the BC Community Center , somewhere between Polls & Sports .
 

Catatonic

Nine Lives
Maybe rickyb should have his own place to post , on the BC Community Center , somewhere between Polls & Sports .
Current Events would seem to be a good fit for him.
He fits right in.
I do note that "neither side" has warmed up to him yet ... maybe a third party or fourth party since @wkmac is the long established 3rd party apologist.
 

rickyb

Well-Known Member
Thanks.

At some point you'll realize that the 'man' was correct about a few things, at least.

i didnt understand this sentence. im pretty sure im on the right side of history.

im not naturally smart enough to be a prof, but i have considered it. my 2 uncles are teachers.

system of a down are a bunch of socialists, michael moore directed their BOOM song, and michael moore interviewed chris hedges who wrote the above article.

alot of socialists participate in capitalism one way or another, i dont think that makes them hypocrits, its just the dominant system.

yea i know, but its just easier to copy and paste. i just let the experts do the talking.
 

BrownArmy

Well-Known Member
You're likely correct about SOAD...I'm a passing fan.

One of my faves: (sorry if it's off-topic)


No clue what this video is about, but it's strangely fascinating.
 

rickyb

Well-Known Member
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/...o-video-touting-best-kept-secret-outsourcing/

Searching for the “best kept secret in outsourcing,” one that can “provide you with all the advantages” of domestic workers, but with “offshore prices”? Try prison labor!

That’s the message of Unicor, also known as Federal Prison Industries, a government-owned corporation that employs federal workers for as little as 23 cents an hour

Small business owners have also complained that FPI’s incredibly low wages make it impossible to compete.
 
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