Corporations Take Advantage of Prison Labor

[NNN0LHI]

http://theloop21.com/money/corporations-take-advantage-prison-labor

By: Dr. Boyce Watkins | TheLoop21 (Add to your loop)
Thu, 01/20/2011 - 1:51pm

Good old fashioned capitalism is one of the most dangerous things to happen to the American justice system in a very long time. Capitalism is an animal that feeds on itself and is never fully satiated. The goal of any corporation is to maximize shareholder wealth, no matter how wealthy you already are. Therefore, if the system needs prison inmates to increase shareholder income, the natural thing to do is to find more inmates to help increase productive capacity. That’s exactly what’s happening, as the United States now leads the world in the number of its citizens it places behind bars, with quite a few corporations benefiting as a result.

Companies such as Nike, TWA, Dell Computers, Microsoft and Burger King are reportedly using prison labor to make many of the products you know and love. Farmers are starting to use prison labor after not being able to find enough migrant workers. Prison labor allows companies to deal with the rising challenge of globalization, opening the door for them to make a profit without having to pay workers a competitive wage. snip

According to Prison Legal News, MicroJet used prison labor to cut airplane components, paying $7 an hour for a job that normally pays $30 per hour. BP has been using prison labor to clean up some of the most dangerous regions affected by the massive oil spill this summer, which is in contrast to their promise to hire local residents. Prison inmates are a great labor force, mainly because they don’t unionize, Congress doesn’t care much about how you treat them, and American citizens think they deserve whatever they get. snip

America heads down a very dangerous slope by allowing for the creation of such a massive industry surrounding the incarceration of our fellow Americans.