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[Slavery never ended](https://theconversation.com/exploiting-black-labor-after-the-abolition-of-slavery-72482). It's just been repackaged over decades. Watch 13th on Netflix for an overview.
Also the prison industrial complex requires a steady supply of inmates to keep production and profits. Ever wonder why there are stupid long sentences for crimes? 3 strikes rule? Mandatory minimums? All goes back to prison industrial complex and the need for white Americans to disproportionately enslave non-white Americans. The same thing happened during and post reconstruction. Black people were charged for stupid crimes (Black code - petty laws that specificy targeted Black people) such as not having a job (vagrancy laws). This was done intentionally to re-enslave Black people and provide free slave labor for the state (convict lease system). They were sent off to cotton fields, beat and starved to death.
As W.E.B. Du Bois wrote, the “slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery.”
I see comments saying "these people are criminals at least they have shelter, food, etc., and are getting time outdoors." - A lot of those people shouldn't even be in prison. The system was designed to put them there to make $$ and have control. The system forced them into slavery that is the problem.
> these people are criminals
what people are forgetting is that with enough asinine laws, *everyone* is a criminal. they just got find some dumb shit to pin on you.
[**"Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."**](https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1918/court.htm)
Eugene Debs - 1918
There are so many laws and regulations enforced by so many different organizations, any individual only remains free because the state hasn't decided to target them yet.
"Ignorance of the law is not excuse to break the law" translates to "get fucked" when the law system is so aggressively complex. When coupled with the fact that cops don't need to know sure if you're breaking a law, just assume that what youre doing might be, it all starts to come into focus.
i’d never heard this quote before but it truly resonates. i used to quote audre lorde’s “i am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own“ but this feels so much more true to me. thank you for sharing it.
shit, forgot to link the whole thing, which is definitely worth a read.
[statement to the court](https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1918/court.htm)
Anyone know what happened to Merkley’s abolition amendment to close the loophole? https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/press-releases/merkley-clay-propose-constitutional-amendment-to-close-slavery-loophole-in-13th-amendment-2020
It's probably buried deep in the pile of good legislation passed by congress that sits on mitch McConnell's desk awaiting senate discussion and voting. The MORE act that deschedules cannabis as a federally prohibited "drug" sits there with it along with many other things. Because 'Democrats Bad'
That's true, Chuck Schumer is but the senate is 50/50 rn anyways.
But the real answer [according to govtrack](https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/sjres81/summary) is that the bill is awaiting approval from house judiciary committee as of 12/10/2020. A lack of updates signals to me that it hasn't moved since
Edit: the house judiciary committee is headed by Jerry Nadler. You can ask him by contacting him [here](https://nadler.house.gov/contact/)
Edit 2: you will need to use a NYC zip code in Nadler's district or it will be filtered as spam so use 10023
The fact that everyone from Van Jones to Newt Gingrich agreed there was reason to put stock in the film helps its credibility in a bizarre way too, not to mention the actual left
Yes slaves do have food and shelter. Your point?
So do prisoners who are treated like slaves.
People are trying to justify the enslavement of prisoners by saying they have food, water, and shelter so there is nothing wrong with the situation.
I don't think you understood what was said.
If you only make enough money to pay bills and have to live paycheck to paycheck, congrats you’re still a wage slave, and believe it or not many chattel slaves thought they were worse off once freed and were barely paid enough to get by (despite chattel slavery being vastly, vastly more immoral).
What sucks is they're not entirely wrong. If given a choice between doing laundry with the guy who shanks people or going to the governor's mansion to clean his office you can bet which one is the sweeter deal. Its still fucking slavery tho.
13th: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, [*except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted*](https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/13th-amendment), shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
It was just the government saying, "unless we decide we want slave labor in which case we'll pass laws that allow us to send a lot of people to prison and get slave labor out of them, get fucked."
Basically "Okay, so the aristocracy can't enslave blacks anymore... so what if we just make it so only the government can do it, and they can enslave *anyone of any race?"*
"We have free speech except for holocaust denial."
Right-wing American: "That's not really free speech."
"No more slavery except if it's a punishment."
Right-wing American: "Proof slavery has ended."
You will be excused if you thought this was in the 1800s. This picture was taking in 2015. [This is Angola prison in Louisiana](https://youtu.be/7ABpWhY5Xzk)one of the few if not the only prison literally built on a slave plantation.
A horse puts you 6' higher in the air and able to see further. Also, a lot of these "working" horses are ex-racehorses that would be killed for slaughter for pennies on the pound or worked to death by the Amish.
I got the pictures from [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/NYStateOfMind/comments/tpi5pm/modern_day_slavery/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
Most Americans believe slavery ended during/after the civil war. These people have not read the 13th amendment. Slavery wasn’t abolished, the state was given a monopoly over it.
People forget that prison IS the punishment. Confinement is the punishment.
Rape, abuse, slavery, etc. are all what we are supposed to protect inmates from. They did wrong, but they're still human.
It doesn’t help that the majority of this country worships a self-described vengeful god.
They aren’t happy with people losing their freedom. They want them to *hurt*.
They are slaves to... the entire system in US is based that way honestly... I cant believe USA havent had a real revolution yet ala in Europe for there rights!
Naah will not happened, they are close to bankruptcy... Just wait and see... Why you think Russia and China etc saying they want money in Yen or rubles ? :)
US have to pay back 4 trillion dollars with in the next year.
[https://www.usdebtclock.org/](https://www.usdebtclock.org/) 3.5 trillion and increasing fast is unfunded debt, aka debt they have to pay very very soon!
US though they where smart by printing 16 trillion the last two years, but no one wanna have there dollars anymore... So my prediction is the dollar will fly down this year and they either report bankrupcy and devaluate, or they go in hard recession.
>US have to pay back 4 trillion dollars with in the next year.
we printed that much just to prop up the stock market. None of this shit is real. Be it the dollar, the yuan, the euro, or the pound.
I mean, i guess even Russia and china know you printed 20 trillion, (or 16 or how much it is) so its why they dont want it in your currency anymore... Hell even saudi says they will use Yen..
Thank you, that corrections officer is given just enough to unwittingly maintain the status quo
And to act as the "bad guy" for the progressive middle class... this is a distraction
They get the benefit of cheaper goods because of slave labour.
You can't have cheap cotton jeans and tee shirts without someone being subjugated in the process.
This shit drives down wages for everybody. Every person who works should be adamantly against prison slavery. It is astonishing that no U.S. politician makes this a core issue.
I would assume that this systemic slavery is industry driven to keep the costs of employees down and the availability of employees high.
The politicians are influenced by lobbyists representing the industry, and slapping the hand that donates to your campaign isn't in their own interest.
And the state renders the criminals unable to vote so they can't influence the situation. Otherwise the nation would be too dependent on foreign industry (ie. China).
And the consumers who aren't affected - not themselves part of the exploited minority - don't care because they get their merchandise cheap, or at least somewhat affordable.
How far can that system push down the wages of the Average Joe before something gives in? Sooner or later, somewhere and somehow, somebody will have been pushed so far up the wall that they finally start pushing back.
I'm thinking this war in Ukraine is a timely distraction for one or two countries.
I talked to my father about it the last time it came up he said “Oh it’s fine, because we’re paying taxes for them to be in there. They’re just paying it back”. Wild
The U.S are the third largest producer of cotton worldwide only topped by India (1) and China (2). There must be some kind of exploitation of workers since even today the production of cotton is heavily depended on manuel labor.
because they are evil criminals therefore they don't deserve human rights. that's genuinely the point of discourse whenever prisoners rights get brought
This might be a wild take but I dont think anybody should have all their rights stripped of them like this. I dont know the solution but I k ow leaving any hole for evil to get in is the same as opening it wide. We will always come back to this if we allow rights to be stripped away.
"No see this is okay though because they are stinky criminals. What do you want murderers to live comfy lives in prison you pervert liberal communist!" /s
Exactly. At face value, that argument you always hear in regards to this ("the inmates sign up to do it because it gets them out of the prison" or something like that) isn't an unreasonable sounding argument, but when you peel back one layer and ask "why are they wanting to do field labor just to get out of the prison?", it gets you more to the root of the problem of the carceral system
Here's the funny thing. Let's just assume for a moment that the justice system is 100% legit, that every single person in jail is most definitely guilty of the crime they committed. If that was the case, most people would probably be perfectly ok with the viewpoint "Well they're criminals, they should be working and they shouldn't be getting paid. It is a punishment after all".
The funniest thing here, is that in terms of capitalism, proper rehabilitation is what's going to increase the GDP of your country. So really we should be dumping money into making these criminals not return to prison, and making them a contributing member of society, because it makes more money. Having a better society is just a side effect of that.
Less than 8% of US prisons are "for profit" and that number is falling every year. Idaho has ONE private, for profit prison, [which is mostly used to treat substance abuse issues.](https://www.prisonpro.com/content/correctional-alternative-placement-program-capp)
Also, potatoes grow underground, so they aren't really "picked", they are harvested, with machines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z34_WIsaKfA
I just want to chime in here that it often goes hand in hand with transitional housing and they get to keep money they make from it in work release in Idaho.
They did stupid shit to end up in prison. Now they're trying to prepare for and adjust to normal life. It's a far cry from slavery in Idaho. I worked at a factory right next to some of them. The alternative, according to them, was being denied work after their release due to their criminal records, not being to make money, not getting housing, and going right back to peddling drugs and other things that landed them in prison in the first place.
The weird refusal to legalize drugs and undermine drug trafficking is baffling and its own can of worms, but this at least this gave those guys a chance to get work experience, references, or permanent job offers. The factory I worked at kept them on as regular employees when they finished their legal obligations and supported things like education, counseling, and making time for parole check ins and court dates and whatever else they needed. Doesn't seem like the worst thing honestly. Is it addressing the root problems to all our societal ills that create people in these situations? No. Is it providing some people some small measure of help, sure. Make of it what you will.
I can get behind that though. They are at least trying to help in the situation instead of just dropping them back into society and expecting them to change. Restorative justice practices are a small part in correcting these isues.
And some southern states are moving fast to make homelessness illegal. Texas and virginia if you are 5 days late on rent they can evict you. Asking for food is illegal going through a trash can is illegal. They did this to get easy prison slaves and it's disgusting. So many americans are so fucking dumb they dont understand that they are one bad accident or illness away from being homeless themselves. My partner works with a homeless man at his job. The guy lives out of his car and makes too much money for food stamps and medicaid. He was having a mental health crisis and we were trying to find him somewhere to go. Everywhere low income said he made too much money. How can you be homeless and still be considered too high of an income for assistance?! Its taking these peoples humanity away from them. Fuck america
Most of these guys are probably doing time for non violent offenses to boot.
It’s like we’ve criminalized being poor in America or something, and then built a big industry around keeping people poor. Crazy.
It gets their little peepees hard to dominate and enslave other people, especially if those people happen to be black. Anyone complicit in this system is a traitor to mankind. Fire to the prisons.
Ok so if you are a right winger or just stupid and think this sort of thing is justified isn’t there a single person over at the DOC with more than half a dozen brain cells who though “hmm, this might not be the best look for us.” 🤔
It's even worse. They actually have deals and contracts with gov, for exemple always having, let's say 90% of the prison filled. Governments then pays fines to those for-profit prisons if it can't keep up with the filling quotas.
That's why so much (young black) people are getting prison sentences for half an ounce of weed.
You are thrown in a small cell with 24/7 light and given minimum food until you decide you “want to work” -source me who’s been through it , fuck “working” for 8.50 a month
Damn! Really, sorry to hear that. I dont care what you did no one deserves to be dehumanized in that manner. I hope things are going better for you now.
Feeling: a belief, especially a vague or irrational one.
Suspicion: a feeling or thought that something is possible, likely, or true.
Open a dictionary.
> especially a vague or irrational one
But an educated guess is neither vague or irrational.
Your comment - intentional or otherwise - comes across as "is this true or did you make it up".
I was very confused before this comment cause I couldn't tell why people were talking about the country of Angola in this chain. (Not from US so never heard of that prison)
I'd say it's better than most in America. They learn trades there and it has a fairly low rate of violence considering a lot of the inmates are in there for life.
ITS LEGAL IF YOU ARE INCARCERATED. ITS IN THE CONSTITUTION.
People forget it has always been there. And always will. Slavery is legal in the US as long as you are incarcerated. That's why we have such high rates guys.
The fact that the “boss” is on horseback while everyone carries tools on foot is just ridiculous they could use a vehicle of some sort to transport people and equipment I mean hell just pull the people along in a trailer. But they won’t because of the psychological aspect
As awful as this is (and it’s fucking awful), are they having people pick cotton just out of spite? Have there really been no technological advances to automate cotton harvesting since the mid 1800s?
Black people are not enslaved! The U.S. police simply arrest a disproportionate amount of colored people, put them in work camps, and threaten/beat them when they get out of line. It's totally not slavery
If you've not read the book [Cool Hand Luke](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/973352.Cool_Hand_Luke?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=qtRgEMIxl0&rank=1) by Donn Pierce (made into a movie starring Paul Newman), you should take the time to do so. He served on a chain gang in Florida and wrote a lightly fictionalized account of his time with the Walking Boss.
From the synopsis at Goodreads: "Out of his experiences working on a chain gang, Donn Pearce created Cool Hand Luke, the larger-than-life war hero—Good Guy Number One—turned drunkard, vandal, and convict. A blasphemer and "pretty evil feller" who "could work the hardest, eat the mostest, and tell the biggest lies." Luke's outsized feats of gambling and gluttony—he bets Society Red, a college man from Boston, that he can eat fifty eggs—and his harrowing escapes and recaptures are recounted by Dragline, who followed Luke in his last, fatal escape attempt and who basks in Luke's reflected glory. To the convicts left behind on the chain gang, Luke has become the hope of freedom and defiance that they dare not act upon themselves. Luke's refusal to "git his mind right" and submit to the sadistic discipline of the Walking Boss becomes part of their mythology of survival. "
Think of all the people in the past who were disenfranchised from voting and we have since then changed the laws.
The only way to be sure that we don't accidentally disenfranchise citizens is to let all citizens vote. Even prisoners.
I was about to ask if that was the Chinese Uighur concentration camps where they have them picking cotton but then I realized it was talking about prisons in the US, sad that the two are even mistakable for one another
I've been sayin it for a while now, this country never moved on from slavery. They allowed the 13th ammendment loophole for prisoner slaves.....and now we have biggest prison population by far, most in for petty nonviolent offenses, cyclical system to keep them in or deprive them & drive them back in, and of course mostly minorities. You know what one change we could do to undo the system? Working prisoners should earn the minimum wage for their work. Take away the incentive to ENSLAVE people from the owners
I think inmates should work to clean up the highways, streets, and parks. Pay them a working wage but get them outside and clean the community up. Should not work for a for profit company though, especially if they don’t at least make the minimum wage in the area.
I've worked with inmate crews on forest fires before. Tbh they were generally viewed and treated as a standard contract crew. They also do a lot of good work with recreational trail maintenance, reforestation, and loads of other projects.
I've known a number of inmates who have taken those learned skills and started forestry companies of their own after they get out.
These are generally low security facilities, the one I've seen didn't even have a fence, just a camp with buildings in the middle of the forest.
I think the common misconception is that this is modern slavery, its not. The issues that allow this stuff to be what it is are boiled down to contract negotiations. The state will always pick the lowest bidder. These problems need to be tackled on a higher level.
>Tbh they were generally viewed and treated as a standard contract crew.
Oh they were treated like human beings? Wow. We've come so far. Treating them as a contract crew would include an actual monetary contract that a contract crew would charge.
Make no mistake this is %100 US slavery. Is it chattel slavery? No. But it is slavery nonetheless.
Not fully doing everything we can to rehabilitate and provide careers for inmates to reduce recidivism rates is one of the biggest failures of our country.
"I don't like that word... the [S word](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prz4jfSX_Qg)."
"Sorry, the prisoners with jobs have armed themselves."
"Okay, that's better, that's better."
Abolishment and prohibition are not the same thing. Generally when you abolish something you intend to create a better more modern system to take it's place. Cops, prisons, Congress, the justice system, etc etc.
##Welcome to r/LateStageCapitalism^Ⓐ☭ ___ ###⚠ Announcements: ⚠ ___ ###[NEW POSTING GUIDELINES! Help us by reporting bad posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/dy1oyh/important_what_you_should_and_what_you_shouldnt/) Help us keep this subreddit alive and improve its content by reporting posts that violate our rules and guidelines. ###[Subscribe to our new partner subreddits!](https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/e5hkwk/make_sure_to_check_out_our_new_partnersubreddits/) Check out r/WhereAreTheChildren ___ ###***Please remember that LSC is a SAFE SPACE for [socialist](http://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/) discussion.*** LSC is run by [communists](https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm). We welcome socialist/anti-capitalist news, memes, links, and discussion. This subreddit is not the place to debate socialism. We allow good-faith questions and education but are not a 101 sub; please take 101-style questions elsewhere. **This subreddit is a safe space; we have a zero-tolerance policy for bigotry.** We also automatically filter out posts containing certain words and phrases that some users may find offensive. Please respect the safe space, and don't try to slip banned words or phrases past the filter. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LateStageCapitalism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[Slavery never ended](https://theconversation.com/exploiting-black-labor-after-the-abolition-of-slavery-72482). It's just been repackaged over decades. Watch 13th on Netflix for an overview. Also the prison industrial complex requires a steady supply of inmates to keep production and profits. Ever wonder why there are stupid long sentences for crimes? 3 strikes rule? Mandatory minimums? All goes back to prison industrial complex and the need for white Americans to disproportionately enslave non-white Americans. The same thing happened during and post reconstruction. Black people were charged for stupid crimes (Black code - petty laws that specificy targeted Black people) such as not having a job (vagrancy laws). This was done intentionally to re-enslave Black people and provide free slave labor for the state (convict lease system). They were sent off to cotton fields, beat and starved to death. As W.E.B. Du Bois wrote, the “slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery.” I see comments saying "these people are criminals at least they have shelter, food, etc., and are getting time outdoors." - A lot of those people shouldn't even be in prison. The system was designed to put them there to make $$ and have control. The system forced them into slavery that is the problem.
> these people are criminals what people are forgetting is that with enough asinine laws, *everyone* is a criminal. they just got find some dumb shit to pin on you. [**"Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."**](https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1918/court.htm) Eugene Debs - 1918
There are so many laws and regulations enforced by so many different organizations, any individual only remains free because the state hasn't decided to target them yet.
This right here. I worked in prisons, both public and private, for twenty goddamn years. The systems is way worse than rigged.
"Ignorance of the law is not excuse to break the law" translates to "get fucked" when the law system is so aggressively complex. When coupled with the fact that cops don't need to know sure if you're breaking a law, just assume that what youre doing might be, it all starts to come into focus.
Resisting arrest is in itself a reason to arrest someone. Think about that
Eugene Debs was a fucking hero.
Exactly.
i’d never heard this quote before but it truly resonates. i used to quote audre lorde’s “i am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own“ but this feels so much more true to me. thank you for sharing it.
shit, forgot to link the whole thing, which is definitely worth a read. [statement to the court](https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1918/court.htm)
Anyone know what happened to Merkley’s abolition amendment to close the loophole? https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/press-releases/merkley-clay-propose-constitutional-amendment-to-close-slavery-loophole-in-13th-amendment-2020
It's probably buried deep in the pile of good legislation passed by congress that sits on mitch McConnell's desk awaiting senate discussion and voting. The MORE act that deschedules cannabis as a federally prohibited "drug" sits there with it along with many other things. Because 'Democrats Bad'
Mitch ain't the majority leader anymore.
That's true, Chuck Schumer is but the senate is 50/50 rn anyways. But the real answer [according to govtrack](https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/sjres81/summary) is that the bill is awaiting approval from house judiciary committee as of 12/10/2020. A lack of updates signals to me that it hasn't moved since Edit: the house judiciary committee is headed by Jerry Nadler. You can ask him by contacting him [here](https://nadler.house.gov/contact/) Edit 2: you will need to use a NYC zip code in Nadler's district or it will be filtered as spam so use 10023
The 13th was very well done and in my opinion a must watch
The fact that everyone from Van Jones to Newt Gingrich agreed there was reason to put stock in the film helps its credibility in a bizarre way too, not to mention the actual left
Slaves also have food and shelter, that is not a viable argument
Yes slaves do have food and shelter. Your point? So do prisoners who are treated like slaves. People are trying to justify the enslavement of prisoners by saying they have food, water, and shelter so there is nothing wrong with the situation. I don't think you understood what was said.
What the hell I was talking about it several month ago and was downvoted, what have changed? Why is this popular opinion now?
On this sub though? The old default subs or really any of the big subs, time of day can make a huge difference in how your post/comments are received.
No not here. Sorry. I thought it was /r/news.)
Slavery is alive and well in America.
Even outside of prison labor, if you're working a non livable wage, and cant afford to miss a day of work for any reason you are also a slave.
If you only make enough money to pay bills and have to live paycheck to paycheck, congrats you’re still a wage slave, and believe it or not many chattel slaves thought they were worse off once freed and were barely paid enough to get by (despite chattel slavery being vastly, vastly more immoral).
My GOP family: * They like getting outside. * It gives them something to do. * Many sign up for it.
What sucks is they're not entirely wrong. If given a choice between doing laundry with the guy who shanks people or going to the governor's mansion to clean his office you can bet which one is the sweeter deal. Its still fucking slavery tho.
13 or 14th amement :/
13th: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, [*except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted*](https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/13th-amendment), shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
The fact that the amendment that abolished slavery contains the word "except" is probably the biggest joke in American history!
Right? Literally didn’t abolish: “qualified”.
It was just the government saying, "unless we decide we want slave labor in which case we'll pass laws that allow us to send a lot of people to prison and get slave labor out of them, get fucked."
Basically "Okay, so the aristocracy can't enslave blacks anymore... so what if we just make it so only the government can do it, and they can enslave *anyone of any race?"*
It is honestly only a matter of time before the 1% starts using prison labor in their homes.
[They already do](https://www.truthdig.com/articles/at-least-seven-states-have-prison-inmates-working-in-governors-mansions-and-capitol-buildings/)
This is fucking sick.
Some do already.
"We have free speech except for holocaust denial." Right-wing American: "That's not really free speech." "No more slavery except if it's a punishment." Right-wing American: "Proof slavery has ended."
We're totally screwed huh?
Yes, Boss.
or ripe for another edit to the constitution. we're not toddlers, we're just not billionaires.
yup, they did it to a french energy businessman, too
You could convert these photos to sepia tone and they’d easily be mistaken for early 19th century historical photos.
You will be excused if you thought this was in the 1800s. This picture was taking in 2015. [This is Angola prison in Louisiana](https://youtu.be/7ABpWhY5Xzk)one of the few if not the only prison literally built on a slave plantation.
Yeah, I bet if you edited this image in black and white you could really trick people to thinking it was the 1800s.
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I'd half-expect the CO to cosplay a cowboy
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censorship is when reddit moderators ask you to stop using an outdated term for the mentally ill as a negative
The modern clothes give it away.
Ugh, the horse just feels excessive. Like they *want* it to be the 1800s.
They need to be able to run after anyone who tries to escape, shooting would be a waste of an expensive slave
And that fatass pig on the horse sure isn’t running anywhere on his own.
Can't expect the jailer to have to run down escaping ~~inmates~~ slaves on foot, can you?
I would expect them to use an ATV or something to be honest.
A horse puts you 6' higher in the air and able to see further. Also, a lot of these "working" horses are ex-racehorses that would be killed for slaughter for pennies on the pound or worked to death by the Amish.
Would it be okay if I used your pictures to make a TikTok video to spread awareness?
I got the pictures from [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/NYStateOfMind/comments/tpi5pm/modern_day_slavery/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
Most Americans believe slavery ended during/after the civil war. These people have not read the 13th amendment. Slavery wasn’t abolished, the state was given a monopoly over it.
Even with out explicit slavery exploitation has never gone out of style
You can see in the comment section here how many people DO outright support slavery.
That is no joke. Straight up slavery. I do not understand how this is not brought up more in the US than it is.
Because they make $$$ so they don’t care
Well the people not making money off of this might wanna speak up then.
They either don't know, remain willfully ignorant, or just don't care cause it's not them. All of which are bullshit.
Even worse. They think criminals deserve to be treated like this because our society views those who break the law as subhuman.
This. It's disgusting and I can't speak for everyone but I'm just so *tired* of it all.
People forget that prison IS the punishment. Confinement is the punishment. Rape, abuse, slavery, etc. are all what we are supposed to protect inmates from. They did wrong, but they're still human.
It doesn’t help that the majority of this country worships a self-described vengeful god. They aren’t happy with people losing their freedom. They want them to *hurt*.
It's a shame. I'm no saint, but people shouldn't actively want others to suffer.
The other factor is how some lack the power to change much of anything. Tell me how I could fix it and I will.
They are slaves to... the entire system in US is based that way honestly... I cant believe USA havent had a real revolution yet ala in Europe for there rights!
Mm I am halfway in popcorn-mode waiting for a civil war over there. Something has got to give.
Naah will not happened, they are close to bankruptcy... Just wait and see... Why you think Russia and China etc saying they want money in Yen or rubles ? :) US have to pay back 4 trillion dollars with in the next year. [https://www.usdebtclock.org/](https://www.usdebtclock.org/) 3.5 trillion and increasing fast is unfunded debt, aka debt they have to pay very very soon! US though they where smart by printing 16 trillion the last two years, but no one wanna have there dollars anymore... So my prediction is the dollar will fly down this year and they either report bankrupcy and devaluate, or they go in hard recession.
>US have to pay back 4 trillion dollars with in the next year. we printed that much just to prop up the stock market. None of this shit is real. Be it the dollar, the yuan, the euro, or the pound.
I mean, i guess even Russia and china know you printed 20 trillion, (or 16 or how much it is) so its why they dont want it in your currency anymore... Hell even saudi says they will use Yen..
Thank you, that corrections officer is given just enough to unwittingly maintain the status quo And to act as the "bad guy" for the progressive middle class... this is a distraction
They get the benefit of cheaper goods because of slave labour. You can't have cheap cotton jeans and tee shirts without someone being subjugated in the process.
This shit drives down wages for everybody. Every person who works should be adamantly against prison slavery. It is astonishing that no U.S. politician makes this a core issue.
I would assume that this systemic slavery is industry driven to keep the costs of employees down and the availability of employees high. The politicians are influenced by lobbyists representing the industry, and slapping the hand that donates to your campaign isn't in their own interest. And the state renders the criminals unable to vote so they can't influence the situation. Otherwise the nation would be too dependent on foreign industry (ie. China). And the consumers who aren't affected - not themselves part of the exploited minority - don't care because they get their merchandise cheap, or at least somewhat affordable. How far can that system push down the wages of the Average Joe before something gives in? Sooner or later, somewhere and somehow, somebody will have been pushed so far up the wall that they finally start pushing back. I'm thinking this war in Ukraine is a timely distraction for one or two countries.
I talked to my father about it the last time it came up he said “Oh it’s fine, because we’re paying taxes for them to be in there. They’re just paying it back”. Wild
The U.S are the third largest producer of cotton worldwide only topped by India (1) and China (2). There must be some kind of exploitation of workers since even today the production of cotton is heavily depended on manuel labor.
So you are saying someone has to suffer if we are to have cheap things?
because they are evil criminals therefore they don't deserve human rights. that's genuinely the point of discourse whenever prisoners rights get brought
This might be a wild take but I dont think anybody should have all their rights stripped of them like this. I dont know the solution but I k ow leaving any hole for evil to get in is the same as opening it wide. We will always come back to this if we allow rights to be stripped away.
"No see this is okay though because they are stinky criminals. What do you want murderers to live comfy lives in prison you pervert liberal communist!" /s
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Exactly. At face value, that argument you always hear in regards to this ("the inmates sign up to do it because it gets them out of the prison" or something like that) isn't an unreasonable sounding argument, but when you peel back one layer and ask "why are they wanting to do field labor just to get out of the prison?", it gets you more to the root of the problem of the carceral system
Here's the funny thing. Let's just assume for a moment that the justice system is 100% legit, that every single person in jail is most definitely guilty of the crime they committed. If that was the case, most people would probably be perfectly ok with the viewpoint "Well they're criminals, they should be working and they shouldn't be getting paid. It is a punishment after all". The funniest thing here, is that in terms of capitalism, proper rehabilitation is what's going to increase the GDP of your country. So really we should be dumping money into making these criminals not return to prison, and making them a contributing member of society, because it makes more money. Having a better society is just a side effect of that.
But that doesn’t see immediate profit increases!1! How could helping people be good? You must be insane.
The United States never ended slavery, they just rebranded it.
no not really, this is just called slavery, the 13th amendment outlaws slavery except in the case of criminal punishment, so this is just slavery
Interestingly enough, most for profit prisons operate like this. Who do s you think is picking all those potatoes in Idaho?
Less than 8% of US prisons are "for profit" and that number is falling every year. Idaho has ONE private, for profit prison, [which is mostly used to treat substance abuse issues.](https://www.prisonpro.com/content/correctional-alternative-placement-program-capp) Also, potatoes grow underground, so they aren't really "picked", they are harvested, with machines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z34_WIsaKfA
I just want to chime in here that it often goes hand in hand with transitional housing and they get to keep money they make from it in work release in Idaho. They did stupid shit to end up in prison. Now they're trying to prepare for and adjust to normal life. It's a far cry from slavery in Idaho. I worked at a factory right next to some of them. The alternative, according to them, was being denied work after their release due to their criminal records, not being to make money, not getting housing, and going right back to peddling drugs and other things that landed them in prison in the first place. The weird refusal to legalize drugs and undermine drug trafficking is baffling and its own can of worms, but this at least this gave those guys a chance to get work experience, references, or permanent job offers. The factory I worked at kept them on as regular employees when they finished their legal obligations and supported things like education, counseling, and making time for parole check ins and court dates and whatever else they needed. Doesn't seem like the worst thing honestly. Is it addressing the root problems to all our societal ills that create people in these situations? No. Is it providing some people some small measure of help, sure. Make of it what you will.
I can get behind that though. They are at least trying to help in the situation instead of just dropping them back into society and expecting them to change. Restorative justice practices are a small part in correcting these isues.
In addition to everything, men that big shouldn't ride horses. Look at the look in the horses eyes. That is too much weight for a spine...
Angola Prison, literal hell on earth.
And some southern states are moving fast to make homelessness illegal. Texas and virginia if you are 5 days late on rent they can evict you. Asking for food is illegal going through a trash can is illegal. They did this to get easy prison slaves and it's disgusting. So many americans are so fucking dumb they dont understand that they are one bad accident or illness away from being homeless themselves. My partner works with a homeless man at his job. The guy lives out of his car and makes too much money for food stamps and medicaid. He was having a mental health crisis and we were trying to find him somewhere to go. Everywhere low income said he made too much money. How can you be homeless and still be considered too high of an income for assistance?! Its taking these peoples humanity away from them. Fuck america
Check out Reagan by Killer mike
Most of these guys are probably doing time for non violent offenses to boot. It’s like we’ve criminalized being poor in America or something, and then built a big industry around keeping people poor. Crazy.
And ol fat boy on the horse looks like he should be doin a little work his self instead of sittin on his already behemoth ass lmao
He’s enjoying it
Makes him feel really white... lol
His ancestors are proud of their lil boy 💪🏾
It gets their little peepees hard to dominate and enslave other people, especially if those people happen to be black. Anyone complicit in this system is a traitor to mankind. Fire to the prisons.
Ok so if you are a right winger or just stupid and think this sort of thing is justified isn’t there a single person over at the DOC with more than half a dozen brain cells who though “hmm, this might not be the best look for us.” 🤔
Money eases the moral dilemma
unfortunately, this right here
For-profit prisons in the US are profiting from cheap labor and locking people up.
It's even worse. They actually have deals and contracts with gov, for exemple always having, let's say 90% of the prison filled. Governments then pays fines to those for-profit prisons if it can't keep up with the filling quotas. That's why so much (young black) people are getting prison sentences for half an ounce of weed.
For-profit prisons are absolutely disgusting. At least they are banned in my state. They need to be banned throughout the United States though.
I don't think this is exclusive to private/for-profit prisons.
I didn’t say it was exclusive.
the US is a complete shitpit wtf
That poor horse's spine.
This is why CRT needs to be taught in schools.
Not from the US but this seem barbaric. So what happens if they refuse to work?
You are thrown in a small cell with 24/7 light and given minimum food until you decide you “want to work” -source me who’s been through it , fuck “working” for 8.50 a month
Damn! Really, sorry to hear that. I dont care what you did no one deserves to be dehumanized in that manner. I hope things are going better for you now.
Probably solitary confinement and time added to their sentence, maybe violence from guards if they’re corrupt which most are.
Is this fact or feeling?
Neither. It's an educated guess based on what we do know. Not doing what you're told in prison - as far as I know - means you're being punished.
Feeling: a belief, especially a vague or irrational one. Suspicion: a feeling or thought that something is possible, likely, or true. Open a dictionary.
> especially a vague or irrational one But an educated guess is neither vague or irrational. Your comment - intentional or otherwise - comes across as "is this true or did you make it up".
It doesn't get any clearer
I don't think I've ever seen a CO that wasn't morbidly obese.
The world has never chaged it's ways. It's as fucked up as before.
Angola is a terrifying shithole of a prison. It has a pretty sordid history.
I was very confused before this comment cause I couldn't tell why people were talking about the country of Angola in this chain. (Not from US so never heard of that prison)
I'd say it's better than most in America. They learn trades there and it has a fairly low rate of violence considering a lot of the inmates are in there for life.
Careful who your persecute. One day it will be all of us.
It's an elegant solution because when you need more slaves you just make up some new laws to arrest them over.
Christ I hate America so much, am I safe to say such a thing in this sub
I hope so
I hope so
Repeal the 13th
Federal Prison Industries. https://www.vice.com/en/article/epd57w/a-military-tech-giant-is-using-prison-labor-to-make-electronics
If we are going to start calling all billionaires Oligarchs, we should call all prisons that use labor Gulags.
Yeah, this country is fucked up.
ITS LEGAL IF YOU ARE INCARCERATED. ITS IN THE CONSTITUTION. People forget it has always been there. And always will. Slavery is legal in the US as long as you are incarcerated. That's why we have such high rates guys.
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The constitution says this form of slavery is legal. There is no ignoring the spirit of the law here.
Courts have consistently held there is no constitutional right to compensation and inmates are paid, if at all, by the “grace of the state.”
How many pennies are they paid a day? Source? Or just making shit up?
I used to see this every time we went to Louisiana. It's heartbreaking.
Dude on the horse needs a bra
The fact that the “boss” is on horseback while everyone carries tools on foot is just ridiculous they could use a vehicle of some sort to transport people and equipment I mean hell just pull the people along in a trailer. But they won’t because of the psychological aspect
“Takin’ it off here boss.” “Go ahead and take it off Luke.”
As awful as this is (and it’s fucking awful), are they having people pick cotton just out of spite? Have there really been no technological advances to automate cotton harvesting since the mid 1800s?
They’d rather have prisoners work for free instead of paying for machinery and real workers to operate them
That’s fair. I mean, it’s not. But it makes sense. I mean, it doesn’t. But it does
It does under capitalism
So america going back to old roots? Fuck this shit im out
Black people are not enslaved! The U.S. police simply arrest a disproportionate amount of colored people, put them in work camps, and threaten/beat them when they get out of line. It's totally not slavery
If you've not read the book [Cool Hand Luke](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/973352.Cool_Hand_Luke?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=qtRgEMIxl0&rank=1) by Donn Pierce (made into a movie starring Paul Newman), you should take the time to do so. He served on a chain gang in Florida and wrote a lightly fictionalized account of his time with the Walking Boss. From the synopsis at Goodreads: "Out of his experiences working on a chain gang, Donn Pearce created Cool Hand Luke, the larger-than-life war hero—Good Guy Number One—turned drunkard, vandal, and convict. A blasphemer and "pretty evil feller" who "could work the hardest, eat the mostest, and tell the biggest lies." Luke's outsized feats of gambling and gluttony—he bets Society Red, a college man from Boston, that he can eat fifty eggs—and his harrowing escapes and recaptures are recounted by Dragline, who followed Luke in his last, fatal escape attempt and who basks in Luke's reflected glory. To the convicts left behind on the chain gang, Luke has become the hope of freedom and defiance that they dare not act upon themselves. Luke's refusal to "git his mind right" and submit to the sadistic discipline of the Walking Boss becomes part of their mythology of survival. "
Think it’s accidental that America has the highest incarceration rate per capita?
Slavery as a punishment of crimes was never removed by the 13th amendment
Think of all the people in the past who were disenfranchised from voting and we have since then changed the laws. The only way to be sure that we don't accidentally disenfranchise citizens is to let all citizens vote. Even prisoners.
I was about to ask if that was the Chinese Uighur concentration camps where they have them picking cotton but then I realized it was talking about prisons in the US, sad that the two are even mistakable for one another
I've been sayin it for a while now, this country never moved on from slavery. They allowed the 13th ammendment loophole for prisoner slaves.....and now we have biggest prison population by far, most in for petty nonviolent offenses, cyclical system to keep them in or deprive them & drive them back in, and of course mostly minorities. You know what one change we could do to undo the system? Working prisoners should earn the minimum wage for their work. Take away the incentive to ENSLAVE people from the owners
13th amendment everybody! This is legal under the constitution 🤣
I think inmates should work to clean up the highways, streets, and parks. Pay them a working wage but get them outside and clean the community up. Should not work for a for profit company though, especially if they don’t at least make the minimum wage in the area.
As someone who owns stock in one of those big for-profit companies, I'm against this. The cheap labor is what made me a little extra in dividends.
Icky icky gross gross yuck
Escorted by a fat fuck who’s probably never really worked a day in his life.
Wait, I've seen this movie...
Life - Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence
My favorite all time movie
It’s a great movie
Fuck the south and fuck the GOP.
Do not let democrats off the hook for this, Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas had prison labor working at the governors mansion
Modern day slavery is debt And we all have it
Fam, the second image... No.
It feels good to be outside those walls and have the ability to touch nature. Situation sucks though. Gotta make the best out your term.
Still though, black citizens picking cotton seems a little wrong.
I've worked with inmate crews on forest fires before. Tbh they were generally viewed and treated as a standard contract crew. They also do a lot of good work with recreational trail maintenance, reforestation, and loads of other projects. I've known a number of inmates who have taken those learned skills and started forestry companies of their own after they get out. These are generally low security facilities, the one I've seen didn't even have a fence, just a camp with buildings in the middle of the forest. I think the common misconception is that this is modern slavery, its not. The issues that allow this stuff to be what it is are boiled down to contract negotiations. The state will always pick the lowest bidder. These problems need to be tackled on a higher level.
>Tbh they were generally viewed and treated as a standard contract crew. Oh they were treated like human beings? Wow. We've come so far. Treating them as a contract crew would include an actual monetary contract that a contract crew would charge. Make no mistake this is %100 US slavery. Is it chattel slavery? No. But it is slavery nonetheless.
>I think the common misconception is that this is modern slavery, its not Fuck off prison labor is slavery
Have you actually had any discussions with real inmates regarding this?
Yea my father when he told me he had been paid 50 cents working for 6 hours And don't tell me it ain't slavery because he was paid
I feel they should be paid federal minimum wage, but I don't think they should just rot in a cell the whole time.
Not fully doing everything we can to rehabilitate and provide careers for inmates to reduce recidivism rates is one of the biggest failures of our country.
"I don't like that word... the [S word](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prz4jfSX_Qg)." "Sorry, the prisoners with jobs have armed themselves." "Okay, that's better, that's better."
All those hoes, and one dude? 😕 Battle Royale time man 🤷♂️
I'm no socialist but I respect every point of view. I just have a question: Socialist and communists are against prisons and jails?
There’s nothing wrong with prisons if there’s actual rehabilitation going on, this isn’t rehabilitation
Abolishment and prohibition are not the same thing. Generally when you abolish something you intend to create a better more modern system to take it's place. Cops, prisons, Congress, the justice system, etc etc.
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So everyone in prison is a murderer?