Rally in Pittsburgh supports prison strike, September 9, 2016.
National strike of Prison Workers is on. Demands for reform are in place. The long slog ahead to reform both within the Prison Industrial Gulag and the Rights of common civilian workers is on!
Inside America's biggest prison strike: 'The 13th amendment didn't end slavery'
One of the most passionately held demands is an immediate end to imposed labor in return for paltry wages, a widespread practice in US prisons that the strike organisers call a modern form of slavery. More than 800,000 prisoners are daily put to work, in some states compulsorily, in roles such as cleaning, cooking and lawn mowing.
The remuneration can be as woeful in states such as Louisiana as 4 cents an hour.
The idea that such lowly-paid work in a $2bn industry is equivalent to slavery is leant weight by the 13th amendment of the US constitution. It banned slavery and involuntary servitude, with one vital exception: “as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted”.
Prisoners, in other words, have no constitutional rights and can be blatantly exploited.
Prisoners Bill of Rights / List of Grievances
