U.S. Teacher: I Did 7 Months Of Forced Labor In A Chinese Jail

[uhnope]

Source: NPR

Prisoner 1741 spent more than seven months inside a jail in southern China, assembling Christmas lights for export to America. Work days stretched up to 10 hours and conditions were tough, he says. One boss used strands of Christmas lights to whip workers and drive production.

Stories about forced labor have trickled out of China over the years, but what makes Prisoner 1741's so remarkable is that he isn't Chinese. He's American. In fact, he's a middle-aged, American sociology professor from South Carolina.

Stuart Foster's odyssey inside the Chinese penal system began in April of last year, when police in the city of Guangzhou took him to jail on theft charges. Foster had confessed to taking a large sum of money from an American colleague at a local university.

When Foster arrived at the White Cloud District Detention Center, he says, they gave him a cup and a toothbrush and put him in a cell about the size of a racquetball court where he would spend most of the next 280 days.

Read more: http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/may/29/us-teacher-i-did-7-months-of-forced-labor-in-a/

---

& Free Tibet BTW.

[dreamnightwind]

1. Making our Christmas lights!

They sure are cheap, those Christmas lights, now we know why. I personally have no need for them, better not to support such systems.

[davidpdx]

2. The DU outrage is just overwhelming

Substitute the US for China and you'd have people calling for heads to roll.

[uhnope]

3. funny, aint it?

I guess it just doesn't scratch that exclusively hate American itch.
And I'm not defending the US, BTW:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/us/using-jailed-migrants-as-a-pool-of-cheap-labor.html

[davidpdx]

4. I have no doubt it happens here

In both cases it's wrong. I've rarely seen anyone on DU say anything about China's human rights issues.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

27. Government beating prisoners with whips unless they work harder happens in the U.S.?

You seriously believe that happens here?

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[JackRiddler]

14. You'd think they understood the difference...

between distant countries and their own country, where they can affect things more easily (and set an example for the world). You'd think they understood that you have to sweep the dirt from in front of your own door first.

You'd think they see the difference in coverage by the U.S. corporate media: where are the stories of outrage about prison labor here, or wrongly convicted people here?

It's very convenient to get fake, self-aggrandizing outrage about things that happen in designated enemy countries, since this usually accomplishes nothing except to justify how things are done at home.

Our first moral duty -- and the far harder task -- is to take up the fight closest to home.

[Ash_F]

24. Are you saying they didn't count the mail-in ballots I sent to Beijing? /nt

[Ash_F]

25. Why are American companies buying these Christmas lights/torture instruments? /nt

[Nye Bevan]

5. He should write a book (nt)

[1000words]

6. On the one hand ... this is despicable treatment, obviously.

On the other hand ... if he wasn't a thief, he wouldn't have found himself at the mercy of the Chinese legal system. Bright guy like that should have known better. Hope he learned his lesson.

[Jesus Malverde]

23. Indeed..

Its possible it was a forced confession, on the other hand if he did steal a large sum of money maybe he got off easy.

Whenever you travel overseas, even as close as Mexico, it's a good idea to stay out of trouble.

[JoeyT]

7. While that's ridiculous,

we can't pretend we don't do it too. Plenty of states use inmates as slave labor, for a lot longer than 7 months at a time.

[davidthegnome]

8. Not so different from an American Jail, I expect.

We do pretty much the same thing to a lot of our own prisoners - even the nonviolent ones. Yeah, it's terrible. Yes, we should put a stop to it. It is very hard though, to convince the overall populace to give a damn about the prison population. There is a common belief system that suggests "Well, if they hadn't been stupid/bad they wouldn't be there." The way we treat our prisoners says a lot about our society.

[okaawhatever]

9. I can't believe the responses to this story. Sad day at DU. nt

[JoeyT]

10. Would it make you feel better if

we set off a bunch of fireworks and yelled "We're Number One!" ?

People defend refusing to prosecute or even acknowledge war crimes here, fer chrissake.

ETA: If it had been here, he might still have been slave labor and it would've been 7 years instead of 7 months.

[JackRiddler]

16. Tell them!

Fascinating, self-congratulatory blindness.

[okaawhatever]

18. We don't have slave labor in our jails. Sorry you're misinformed. nt

[JoeyT]

19. My first introduction to it was when I was seventeen

and worked at a place that made church furniture. There was a guy that worked there that the county jail sent over. He didn't want to be there, but he didn't want to tell the sheriff no, either. After maybe two months there, a bandsaw blade broke and took part of his hand off because the guard had been removed. The sheriff sent a new convict over, and I haven't seen that guy since. (That was twenty years ago and I never knew his real name, and I quit the next day) I'm not "misinformed", thanks, I've seen it first hand.

We most certainly DO have slave labor in our prisons. If "Work for us so we can take all the money and we'll fuck you up if you refuse" doesn't qualify as slave labor, I don't know what does. And that isn't little bumblefuck county jails, that's what privatized prisons do.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289

According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison industry produces 100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people.

http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1808:martori-farms-abusive-conditions-at-a-key-walmart-supplier

Currently, we are forced to work in the blazing sun for eight hours. We run out of water several times a day. We ran out of sunscreen several times a week. They don't check medical backgrounds or ages before they pull women for these jobs. Many of us cannot do it! If we stop working and sit on the bus or even just take an unauthorized break, we get a major ticket which takes away our 'good time'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_labour#United_States

Penal labour is not required in the United States, but refusal to work normally results in the inmate receiving less food, a longer sentence, or other sanctions.

[JackRiddler]

22. No one's going to answer that one.

Thanks.

[Ash_F]

26. You have no idea what you are talking about.

Hope this helps.

[flashbang]

11. a quick cartoon

[link:

|

[heaven05]

12. all so profits can be reaped cheaply

by the corporations and people that will benefit from forced labor???!!!!!!! The RW in this country probably feel this is justifiable punishment while providing 'jobs'. And these lights will be in walmart or a dollar store near you soon.

[malthaussen]

13. ,,, and it was easier than teaching. n/t

[JackRiddler]

15. Imagine the same thing in the U.S.

Stuart Foster's odyssey inside the Chinese penal system began in April of last year, when police in the city of Guangzhou took him to jail on theft charges. Foster had confessed to taking a large sum of money from an American colleague at a local university.

Because, of course, worse happens in the U.S.

That doesn't mean this is just or good. It is very bad. But in the U.S., people often get LONGER sentences for stealing "a large sum of money" and they often end up doing forced labor -- sometimes at private prisons.

If this story had happened in the U.S., and if amazingly it had received coverage from NPR, it is guaranteed that the man would never be referred to primarily as a teacher. He would be called a confessed, convicted felon -- and a former teacher.

So when a U.S. outlet does this for China in the absence of comparable coverage for the U.S., it is of course seen as hypocrisy and opportunistic blindness.

[JackRiddler]

17. Does anyone doubt this comment on the story?

that's just like my experience in the Las Vegas jail back in '97 minus the forced labor. I only spent 14 hours there but I did see an inmate from my cell murdered by guards during that time. He was dragged out by his hair and kicked to death by at least 5 guards right in front of the (plexiglass) cell door, then dragged to another cell where we never saw him again. Later, I saw a blurb in the local paper's police blotter that an inmate had "stopped breathing on his way to jail" - newspaper jargon for an inmate being murdered by guards apparently. I saw that blurb in the police blotter several more times while living in Vegas over the next several months. I also saw it in after I moved to Sacramento Ca. Now I know the truth behind those innocuous little words.

Since the advent of widespread smart phones there has been an astonishing wave of police brutality videos. Where's NPR's sympathetic coverage condemning the U.S. police? Where's NPR inside U.S. prisons, referring to prisoners by their outside professions rather than as convicted criminals?

[Brigid]

20. I was just about to mention this comment myself.

Only in jail for 14 hours and he witnesses a murder. Wow.

[JackRiddler]

21. Many people witness police murders...

within a few minutes or seconds of running into the police.