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Prison labor

Hundreds of food brands linked to hidden prisoner workforce, AP reports

by Kimberly Adams and Richard Cunningham
Feb 1, 2024
The Associated Press uncovered a workforce of prisoners producing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of agricultural products and goods by popular food brands.
Nationwide, U.S. prisoners produce hundreds of millions of dollars worth of agricultural products and goods sold on the open market, AP reporters found. Above, a man walks through part of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, a maximum security prison with its own farm.
Giles Clarke/Getty Images
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4 states just voted to close a loophole that allowed slavery as punishment for a crime

by Meghan McCarty Carino
Nov 10, 2022
But that might not change the way prisons use inmates as labor.
There were still a few states that utilized slavery and indentured servitude as punishment for crimes.
Getty Images
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EEC: Documentary Studies

The hidden side of the prison labor economy

by David Brancaccio and Daniel Shin
Jun 17, 2021
Prison work programs can be selective and often train people for jobs they can't actually get on the outside, according to law professor Hadar Aviram.
Firefighting is just one of the jobs done by people who are incarcerated. The chances they will get hired as firefighters after they get out of prison are low.
David McNew/AFP via Getty Images
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EEC: Documentary Studies

How America's economy is embroiled in its multibillion-dollar prison industry

by David Brancaccio and Rose Conlon
Jun 17, 2021
"The Prison in Twelve Landscapes" director Brett Story on the economic consequences of mass incarceration.
“The Prison in Twelve Landscapes” features Nahshon Thomas, a formerly incarcerated man who teaches chess in Washington Square Park. Filmmaker Brett Story said she wanted to address how prison affects everyday life, like the employment prospects of people with criminal records.
Courtesy of Oh Ratface Films
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Money makes all the difference in prison

by Bennett Purser
May 23, 2019
It can't buy freedom, but it bought one inmate some life-improving phone calls.
FRANCOIS NASCIMBENI/AFP/Getty Images
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Montana inmates learn job and life skills while raising cattle on prison ranch

by Eve Abrams
Feb 7, 2018
But food coming from a prison isn't necessarily a selling point.
An inmate attaches milkers to cows' teats.
Eve Abrams/Marketplace
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At this factory, the workforce is paid in pennies

by Mark Garrison
Oct 2, 2015
Does prison labor represent unfair competition for private industry?
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I've Always Wondered ...

Ever wonder who makes those big highway signs?

by Mark Garrison
Sep 22, 2015
The people who do may never get a chance to actually see them in use.
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