for more than three weeks, prisoners in Alabama went on
strike refusing to work and demanding humane prison
conditions according to a 2019 doj report. Alabama's
prisons have some of the highest rates of homicide and
rape in the country and the Department of Justice
called the state quote deliberately indifferent
prisoner harm during the strike. Social media posts
from inside showed prisoners refusing to cook clean and
carry out other administrative tasks in dozens of
facilities across the state. In response, the Alabama
department of corrections cut the number of meals
served per day from three to to serve cold meals rather
than hot ones and cut visitation at various facil
Prisoner advocates claim the changes to retaliate
against the strike. The Alabama D.O.C. Says it made the
changes because of the loss of manpower. Either way.
All of this highlights just how critical prison labor
has become, not just in Alabama, but across the country
quite a captive group of people in a prison where their
jailer and employer are the same entity without any
supervision and without any standards. And it's not
that surprising that you end up with really abusive and
exploitative situations. Yale professor and Attorney
Claudia flores co authored a nationwide report on
prison labor. Her study found 65% of inmates, roughly
800,000 people report working behind bars and more than
75% of inmates surveyed said they had been punished for
refusing to work. There are all sorts of ways that
people were coerced into doing work. Um, sometimes
their free time would be taken Away from them.
Sometimes they would be given have privileges taken
away from them or be given certain kinds of privileg
Um sometimes they would just be straight up, you know,
forced and if not they were punished before I came out
man. The last job that I had was a health care facility
maintenance worker. Sam Nathani Brown spent 24 years
in prison before being released on parole. But brown's
last job behind bars, forced into the front lines of
the pandemic I was the first person in the state in the
crossroads setting to have to disinfect and clean a
cell was in an office where staff member and then um
prisoner tested positive for covid 19. So I was
terrified for my life. Brown says when he refused to
work, he was threatened with a disciplinary measure
that would have made him ineligible for parole for an
additional eight years. I would have been looking at a
minimum of eight years period just because I don't want
to risk my life to go clean up COVID-19 And and and I
couldn't say no because of his experience during the
pandemic. Brown drafted an amendment to the California
constitution from his prison cell, the California
abolition act or a C A three. The amendment called f
an end to involuntary servitude across the state, lik
the 13th amendment to the US Constitution, California
is one of 20 states nationally that allows i
work as a criminal punishment, being incarcerated
the punishment. So if you commit a crime, your freedom
is taken away, that's the punishment. It's not. And now
we're going to force you to mop floors, we're gonna
force you to, you know, fight fires without prope
equipment or whatever it is that's happening. There is
no place for slavery, forced labor or involuntary
servitude on our books. Brown's amendment was picked up
by California. State Senator Sydney cam lager and made
its way through the state legislature. Supporters o
prison labor have pointed to job experience as the real
benefit of work behind bars and raised concerns that
increasing prisoners pay would be unsustainable.
Financially. Brown's amendment to the California
constitution stalled after the State Department of
Finance estimated it would cost $1.5 billion to pay the
state's $15 minimum wage to the incarcerated
Californians. Despite a C a three not going the
distance. Other states are following Brown's lead
voters in Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana Oregon and
Vermont are all going to vote on a version of this
proposal in november banning involuntary servitude f
everyone, including those convi of a crime colorado,
Nebraska and Utah have already removed the language
from their state constitutions via a statewide ballot
measure. Jamal andrews, Newsy