Is Slave Labor Still Legal In America?
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- Опубликовано: 27 окт 2015
- Across the US, prisoners are required to work for little to no pay and are punished if they refuse. Is prison labor comparable to slave labor?
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you guys realise how much money is spent keeping them in prison.
any money they produce is essentially to pay for all the costs to keep them there.
No its not idiot, they work for private corporations. Also as locking then up you take the responsibility to pay for their stay. Piss of
+Bob Snieger uhh nope!
the government pays these prisons to operate, any profit the prisons make has to be reported and so the government can reduce its spending if the prison is more profitable. (self sustaining)
As for locking them up, i am sure they would rather serve jail time than be executed, or hey instead of punishing them for their crimes we can just ship them att to wherever you live and let them run free, i am sure you would change your tune pretty quick...
+Jared Reabow (Jazza) these are for profit prisons.
+Silas Babilonia Well at least in the USA where you have prisons run by private companies, and that would explain in part, the high rate of incarcerations when compared to other countries. That and those laws you guys have that exponentially rise the incarceration time each time a person commits a crime (having committed other crimes before that is), even if its a minor crime.
Prisoner servitude (or slavery) is actually legal, as per the 13th Amendment. And I am okay with it. It makes sense to put prisoners to work, they are no longer free men but under penalty and debt from their crimes. Now I also would like to make sure that they are treated as humane as possible by the overseer and guards.
I was a prisoner in a u.s Navy brig. 2 of them to be exact. and they both paid us $0.00 an hr. we brought this up to the prison and they said that they give us 30$ a month toward toiletries and stationary supplys but many would leave the prison with $5 and a bus ticket.
Making them work in telemarketing is like a prison within a prison. And for no pay? If I was sentenced to that for life I think I would just check out early.
Fire fighting? I understood all of that, except fire fighting. how the fuck is that supposed to work?
A lot of inmates are sent out to help with wild fires like in California. There's a good article about it, you should read it. Apparently the inmates that are chosen for that job get paid around $2 a day.
Love the stories always so interesting and bring up great points.
+AnnaMarie Bartlett Why thank you!
We cannot ignore the reality of private prisons. A very interesting thing to considere about the reinstitution of slavery in this form.
Home of the free! Right?????
by far, my favorite episode on this channel!
Thought provoking video
Such a good video, this should be the leading argument against our current prison system... For profit prisons using slave labor.
I guarantee the reason the government doesn't mind our current mass incarceration problem has a lot to do with the free labor provided by prisoners
Good video, but I was hoping you'd go into more detail about drug laws. Incarceration increased in the 80's, the same time the drug war began, with blacks being disproportionally targeted.
While we're talking about heinous and unforgivable acts, you should do an episode on private prisons as well. They should just be abolished already.
Every line from the three minute mark on made me actually wince.
First I find out from the Alternate History Hub (great channel, by the way) that "Honest" Abe Lincoln was a *moderate* republican who was just as racist as everyone else, and only interested in appeasing the civil rights activists and stopping the war, and then you guys come along and PROVE it. As much as I appreciate having my eyes opened the light is physically painful sometimes.
Democracy: Keeping scumbags *creative* since 1787.
Don't forget the biggest difference in incarnation is males vs females, with being incarcerated more
Very interesting and insightful.
Are there also not a lot of private prisons in the USA? Do they have prison labor programs?
+FrozenEternity almost all the prisons are private.
+Heptasillin ____ (Nerd)
Today, for-profit companies are responsible for approximately 6 percent of state prisoners, 16 percent of federal prisoners, and inmates in local jails in Texas, Louisiana, and a handful of other states.
www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=what%20percentage%20of%20usa%20prisons%20are%20private%3F
+FrozenEternity some prisons have certification programs so it's easier for inmates to find work when they get out
I love the subjects you're covering!!!
Prisoners can work, but they need to get paid the exact amount they’d make if they weren’t locked up.
And not be forced to work!!! It’s a law that every prisoner has to work unless they have medical necessities that prohibit it or they are taking classes. That’s literal slavery
I love the stories and your channels. They are informative, well developed, unbiased, thought provoking, and bring to light some worldly injustices to humanity. Much like John Oliver's top stories more people (like myself) need to be informed of these stories in an outlet we consume. This helps us make better decisions on how we vote or live out our days. Thank you for your hard work and my many more discover your videos!
Very interesting video!!!
I wish the government would be more responsible.
if you are going to ask the question of if this is slave labor you really should ask the question of our justice system. "Is this slavery?"
13th Amendment
Those are great subjects. Every-time you you take the prisoners out of the institution and force them to work the corrections system is taking a risk of an escape. The main reason is having the Prisoners locked-up is protecting the public from risk of assault. A corrections officer is to protect the public and the state always takes a risk when the prisoners are outside the institution.
How do prisons work in other countries, in comparison?
Would like to request a story on the countires profiting the most by selling arms to the war filled region of middle east
While I deeply appreciate the questions you're raising regarding US prisons, the graphics had no representation for the female inmates or their struggling - past or present.
Leah McPherson this went for all prison...
How many of them are in prison over contempt of court? Like with "child support" and "Alimony"?
omg.. this is my favorite channel
oh, so that's why pot is still illegal.
Exactly! This country disproportionately mass-incarcerates poor minorities for non-violent drug possession, to exploit them for prison slave labor.
Here's an idea of mine. I want to start a union with prisoner's in the USA. If I could get all of them to totally stop working in prison then what would the states possibly do? Keep in mind, I'm talking about minimum and medium security prisoners. But if they all of a sudden stopped working in the kitchen and out on the grounds then who would serve the food? Who would keep the prison's looking nice?
They would have to hire civilian help and that would cost mega $$$. It wouldn't work at all. They would have to release 1000's of them! The prison's 100% depend on the labor of the actual inmates.
So the prisoner's in fact, are keeping themselves locked up by doing all the jobs they do for just a few cents per hour.
Theoretically, that would work. In the real world, it would probably not. That is, because many prisoners actually want to work. Some even get paid. So only in certain area's you could have some impact, but even then the question would be: How do you get everyone to cooperate? I wish you the best of luck. Most people simply do not care about the prisoners.
This is simply absurd, prison labour is a good thing (I say this as a person from a country without prison labour, where consequently the prison system is failing totally). Prison labour means that conditions within prisons are far better. American prisons have a reputation for being the nicest in the world, without this cheap labour conditions in prisons would be far worse. Also a lot of liberals advocate very strongly saying 'take these people out of prison' but when asked where those prisoners will go they say 'away from me' and when asked where the prisoners will work they say 'not at my company'. I hear a lot of hot air and no actual solutions.
you can do it but are you willing to go against big corporations? historically, corporations and government are wiling to send militias to massacre prisoners when they practice their rights, look up Alabama incident. Another suggestion, do a massive petition of divestment of the government or specific corporation out of the prison system. we've done it, so you can do it.
They claim in Texas that they give work time ...towards parole..you get good time work time and flat time..when all that equals 100%..basically 3 for 1 ..they can give parole if they choose too...but when you get released you give back that good time and work time to do that on the street (parole)..while paying fees...I been there...now I'm trying to stay out of trouble one day at a time......oh and that is only for non violent offenders.If the crime is aggrivated or 3g then the offender can only get work time and flat time ...so yes in Texas if you go to the joint they will want to put you to work or go to seg and do it day for day ...and some choose to lay it down....most don't....
over turning marijuana laws will help drop the prison population and the bogus reasoning for arresting so many black people
David C. Fathi looks and sounds like Michael Scott.
I believe the prison system is pretty fucked as it is right now, but teaching prisoners new tasks and skills can give a sense of pride and meaning in a prisoner life. But remember this: most prisoners are imprisoned for a reason, often for violent crimes that deserve punishment. I feel prisoners should be used more often for maintaining public, tax money-produced projects - such as cleaning trash up along roads, or monotonous tasks.
You don't even want to treat them like humans by forcing them to do labor, prison is about rehabilitation your not giving them any life skills to not reoffend when they get out by giving them meaningless chores.
+ECsponger2 Every-time you you take the prisoners out of the institution and force them to work the corrections system is taking a risk of an escape. The main reason is having the Prisoners locked-up is protecting the public from risk of an assault.
+ECsponger2 You are confusing schooling with prison labor ...
With some criminals it is simply not enough sending them to prison, as punishment. They must be sent to prison for punishment! They cost the state and tax payers too much.
What a Nice Video
Wauw... Just wauw. Set´s things a bit in perspektive
you are a smart man what grades did you get in school?
***** i bet your dad bead you for not getting a a*
Prisoners should earn minimum wage or more. The money should be given to them when released minus any money due to any possible victim from the crime they committed.
Slingman19 why? They deserve nothing. The money they earn should go into the guards wages, the food they eat, and into the tax system. Prisoners eat up over $60 billion a year, while not spending a cent back.
The upsides of this is that if a prisoner gets found innocent, they can get a massive payout and support to help them out of it.
change will come one day, the day the American people decide enough in enough and water the tree of liberty once again. God Bless America
Benefit for this is you give them skills so that when they leave they have skills to start over again.
we need some stories about third world cuz i think there where all the issues are stuffed thus alot of good questions can be posed about the issues so the solution must be also there.
I believe criminals should be made to work. Should they be treated unjustly or in a dehumanizing way in doing so? No. A man learns moral in working. Learning that moral makes him a better person when he goes back into the world.
thats a deep one
Prison labor isn't slavery. If you think this, you're ill-informed and have ninidea what you're talking about. The jobs offered to inmates in any prison system within the United States of America are programs for rehabilitation. The inmates use these to acquire skills to help them when they return to being a citizens. Most jobs won't take felons, especially depending on what your felony charge was. These programs are instituted to prevent repeat offenders, give inmates an option to help support their families while in prison, and help the inmates acquire skills they wouldn't have otherwise gained off the streets -- seeing as 90% of the inmate populace are gang affiliated within the U.S. prison system.
These are programs that are offered to the inmates. They aren't forced to do any of these jobs. And not all of the jobs within prisons pay under $3.00 a day. There are fantastic job/career opportunities inmates are offered -- depending on their felony, write-up history within their served time, and how well they behave within their time served -- that start them out at minimum wage, and they can end up earning far more, again, depending on what they choose to do. Inmates are not forces to do these jobs. Slavery implies forced labor of a person(s) against their will.
I worked in a state penitentiary for two years back home. I worked with inmates 24/7. I've seen these programs in effect. Not one inmate complained about the work they did because they wanted, for the most part, to be able to afford some skill for when they left prison and got back home to their families so they could continue to support them. The inmates could have quit these jobs at any point. An inmate can apply to work these jobs as they wished. The inmates have no workman's comp and cannot unionize because they are felons working within a prison system. However, that's ultimately irrelevant seeing as the inmates receive free healthcar, paid for by the state/prison system using taxes levied by the government. And it isn't limited by any means. If an inmate is seriously injured, they are watched heavily on the outside by prison guards while receiving regular work from an outside hospital. Humanitarian rights and federal law prohibits any mistreatment of inmates on a basic human level. If you believe otherwise, you're an idiot that should do some actual research and not listen to someone that likely hasn't ever stepped foot into a prison, let alone worked in one.
In theory your correct. But the original purpose was to keep former slaves done dude. Families were broken and things spiralled downhill once the father was removed from the family.
Wo! how cruel are humans (or is it just white humans I wonder). This stuff is happening since many years, some knew about it, rest had no idea that this was going on. So, is this going to end? Will the 13th amendment ever change?
I'm sad
I don’t see anything wrong with prisoner labor. Or, we can just keep the public safe and give all the prisoners nothing to do. I do however believe that we have too many prisoners and make to many thing illegal. There is no reason why we should have more prisoners than China and Russia combined.
I'm not sure if it's all that bad. I'm mean they're living by people's tax money. In a way they are getting a place to live and food for free. And there're people who purposely commit crime in order to live there.
Unpaid Internship
They can be paid under minimum wage because most of their living expenses are already provided for: housing, food, leisure (sometimes).
Yes slave labor is sitll legal in America--AND, by the way, hundreds of thousands at any given moment are men who are there without due process, because they were put there by the Family Courts, treated as criminals without the due process real criminals are guaranteed to at least get.
Whats the problem?
Prison Laber should be more common. If the prisoners want or dont. You shouldnt care.
Instead of wasting Taxpayers money by just "locking them up".
Dont be emotional. Thats the most logical thinking and also helps the prisoner to have an schedule every day to bring some Order in therír life.
CIP
,
But its not slave labor .... They get payed reallyyyyyy low like a few cents so technically its not free labor
+VideosAreDrugs slaves were paid too. In food, little money for family
It's called wage slavery. It's what we did in share cropping and with Chinese immigrants n California in the Gold Rush
+Slashplite really, so are you saying pigs feet, intestines are food to you? with your logic, you don't mind being a chattel slave?
Just like North Korea !
Well what are you gonna do not have them work? You might aswell try get some of your money back from having to pay for their imprisonment. And also theres uneven number of blacks in prison, well what are you gonna do just stop prosecuting criminals cause they are black? Stop investigating crimes if the criminal is black? This is really stupid.
Miki Mouse
And the private companies pay the goverment for using the prisoners, its not like they hand them over for labour for free dummy
Miki Mouse
Clearly you dont know what youre talking about, the money paid for leasing prisoners to work goes into paying for jailing them. Companies do make profit obviously but if they didnt make profit for leasing prisoners then nobody would do it, the prisoners would just sit idle and the tax payer would lose even more money keeping them in jail. Its a perfectly reasonable system. And if you dont punish people with jail for not paying their tickets and dues then how are you gonna punish them? community service? cause thats just another form of forced labour again
Miki Mouse
And? that is paying your fines assuming i understood your shit english correctly, come back when you have something relevant to say
75 percent are in prison for small quantities of Marijuana. White people are more likely to be drug dealers and users but less likely to get arrested or serve time.
Hmm I'm still skeptical it's an actual problem. While I'll agree that the prison population is quite clearly bloated, I'm not convinced it has to do with pseudo-slave labor, but just with shit law enforcement.
I think the good for prison labor outweighs the bad. If nothing else, it teaches prisoners valuable skills to be used outside prison. It might not be great or rewarding fun, but it's probably healthier than sitting in a cell all day.
+TheAudioInjection Absolutely agree that it's better than doing nothing- better to be busy, better to learn new skills...many prisoners clamor for the opportunity to work. The danger (I think) is less in prisoners working at all, and more in relying on them as a cheap or free labor force. The example of California trying to prevent prisoners from getting out early is a particularly striking example of this. It's a system with a lot of benefits, but one that's very vulnerable to exploitation.
That would be true if people that have felonies weren't automatically denied employment opportunities when they get out. Alot of employers usually won't hire anyone with a felony regardless of offense.
Brian DeSoto that is true
Gotta love that inclusion of color numbers like people's color is what determines jailing
+Josh Patterson Well in the USA and a lot of other countries it does.
PedroM I would disagree in all cases unless racist laws are still in act. Blacks just happen to have a history where they could not be successful but largely America has many opportunities if you work for them
+noahdouble07 Well I cannot say that all are not nor if it correlates however I do not think sentencing is based on color. I think it has to do mostly with poverty
They are included because the numbers don't lie. There are way more black people incarcerated then there should be statistically. That indicates a racially motivated problem. Institutionalized racism has been a thing in America since Europeans came here. I don't understand why you or anyone else would think that it's "over" now. It's not over, it's just not as noticeable.
+Emma Cox Causation is not correlation. Poor blacks get more attention because of "white guilt" and because blacks are generally more democratic and want help while more whites are republican and believe they can help themselves or that the government shouldn't help them. Having said that, they're going to have a better attitude about working hard while say urban blacks in particular may see gang life as their only option cause it's what is around them.
I'm okay with them working in prison if I was in prison I would like to work vs being in a room for 23 hours and don't forget it's not cheap take care of prisoners.
The problem isn't that the prisoners are working (that's a good thing). The issue is that the "slavery loophole" in the 13th Amendment allows corporations to exploit cheap prison slave labor, while paying them (on average) $0.30 cents an hour.
Keep in mind this helps the community and is generally easy work for criminals.
WTF, are you seriously defending slavery??
Yea it also is slavery so....??
I think that this isn't a wrong thing because they got to give back to society. However, I do think prisoners who work should be protected more while working and they can get sentence reductions if they work.
We are slaves to the will of others, and the definition of a slave will continue to expand as long we keep expanding our collective intellect (edit:and compassion)..
amerikkka
Prisoners are provided with food, water and shelter. This costs a lot of tax money and prison labor seems to balance it out. There are also other perks that are provided. I`m not supporting this but they are being "paid".
There are several problems with using prisoners for labor but overall, I think they should work to pay for the food and entertainment given to them in prison. Why should we have to pay tax dollars for them to sit around and do nothing.
Maybe they will use computer hackers to write software for free ? Your next android app... written by a prisoner from behind bars ?
To repay their debt to American society!
While making our streets safe... Only makes sense!
guess what? if you want to avoid all this, there's something simple you can do, DON'T BREAK THE FUCKING LAW!! I feel no remorse or pity for these prisoners.
No, it's not; they committed crimes, therefore its legal.
+chris dube They are still human beings.
The fact that you don't know about the exemption in the 13th Amendment is testament to how appalling our "educational" system is. Here it is:
"Neither slavery nor involutary servitude, EXCEPT AS PUNISHMENT FOR CRIME WHEREOF THE PARTY SHALL HAVE BEEN DULY CONVICTED (caps for emphasis only, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
How is that hard to understand?????
chris dube It may be legal but that doesn't make it right.
Oh, really?! They get room and board, not to mention medical care at OUR expense and they should NOT be expected to work?!
Are you insane?
Just so you know, if your employer (if you are employed that is), provides room and board for you, it is considered compensation and you must pay tax on the value of such.
At least prisoners don't get to pay tax on their room and board. In that respect, prisoners get treated better than us.
chris dube Nobody should be forced to work against their will and prisoners are no exception.
So we should pay for fuck ups? You in jail working your ass off? It's not our fault it was your choice