SLAVE LABOR MEANS BIG BUCKS FOR U.S. CORPORATIONS

(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES -- It seemed like a normal factory closing. U.S.
Technologies sold its electronics plant in Austin, Texas, leaving its 150
workers unemployed. Everyone figured they were moving the plant to Mexico,
where they would employ workers at half the cost. But six weeks later, the
electronics plant reopened in Austin in a nearby prison.

At the same time, the United States blasts China for the use of prison
slave labor, engaging in the same practice itself. Prison labor is a pot of
gold. No strikes, union organizing, health benefits, unemployment insurance
or workers' compensation to pay. As if exploiting the labor of prison
inmates was not bad enough, it is legal in the United States to use slave
labor. The 13th Amendment of the Constitution states that "neither slavery
nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted shall exist within the United States."

There are approximately 2 million people behind bars in the United States
- -- more than three times the number of prisoners in 1980. The United States
now imprisons more people than any other country in the world. In fact, in
the last 20 years California has constructed 21 new prisons while in the
same amount of time, it has built only one new university. That statistic
is even more astounding when we think about the fact that it took
California almost 150 years to build its first 12 prisons. Another five new
prisons are under construction and plans are in the works to build another 10.

The question that needs to be answered is -- why? Why are prisons such a
booming business? The answer lies in the prison industrial complex. At the
same time that prisons clear the streets of those you feel are a "threat"
to society, prisons also offer jobs in construction, guarding,
administration, health, education and food service.

Prisons in impoverished areas often end up with inmates from the local area
who had previously worked in the community. Often they were laid off from a
factory job that moved overseas and they turned to alcohol or drugs, which
ultimately landed them in prison. Others are luckier and get a job in the
prison. One of the fastest-growing sectors of the prison industrial complex
is private corrections companies. Private prisons also have an incentive to
gain as many prisoners as possible and to keep them there as long as possible.

Many corporations, whose products we consume on a daily basis, have learned
that prison labor can be as profitable as using sweatshop labor in
developing nations. You might have had a first-hand experience with a
prison laborer if you have ever booked a flight on Trans World Airlines,
since many of the workers making the phone reservations are prisoners.
Other companies that use prison labor are Chevron, IBM, Motorola, Compaq,
Texas Instruments, Honeywell, Microsoft, Victoria's Secret and Boeing.
Federal prisons operate under the trade name Unicor and use their prisoners
to make everything from lawn furniture to congressional desks. Their Web
site proudly displays "where the government shops first."

Federal safety and health standards do not protect prison labor, nor do the
National Labor Relations Board policies. The corporations do not even have
to pay minimum wage. In California, inmates who work for the Prison
Industrial Authority earn wages between 30 and 95 cents per hour before
required deductions for restitutions and fines.

State Corrections agencies are even advertising their prisoners to
corporations by asking these questions: "Are you experiencing high employee
turnover? Worried about the cost of employee benefits? Getting hit by
overseas competition? Having trouble motivating your work force? Thinking
about expansion space? Then the Washington State Department of Corrections
Private Sector Partnerships is for you."

Prisons are being filled largely with the poor, the mentally ill, people of
color, drug addicts and many combinations of these characteristics. They
are not reserved for violent people who are extremely dangerous to society.

In fact, of the nearly 2 million prisoners, about 150,000 are armed
robbers, 125,000 are murderers and 100,000 are sex offenders. Prisons are
certainly not filled with corporate criminals who make up only 1 percent of
our nation's prisons.

In California, then-Gov. Pete Wilson signed the "three strikes and you're
out" law in 1994. The law states that if an offender has two or more
previous serious or violent felony convictions, the mandatory sentence for
any new felony conviction is 25 years to life. Though people thought the
three-strikes law was intended to protect society from dangerous career
criminals, the actual enactment of the law has been dramatically different.

Kendall Cooke was convicted under the three-strikes law for stealing one
can of beer with two previous convictions of theft. Clarence Malbrough was
sentenced to 25 years to life for stealing batteries, a crime that would
usually send someone to jail for about 30 days. Eddie Jordan stole a shirt
from a JC Penney store, Juan Murro attempted to steal wooden pallets from a
parking lot and Michael Garcia stole a package of steaks from a grocery
store. All of these people are facing life in prison for petty theft. They
are fueling the prison industry. They are not the exception, either.

Eighty-five percent of those sentenced under the law in California faced
prison for a nonviolent offense. Two years after the law went into effect,
there were twice as many people imprisoned under the three-strikes law for
possession of marijuana as for murder, rape and kidnapping combined. More
than 80 percent of those sentenced under the three-strikes law are
African-American and Latino.

In the 1980s, Congress established several different mandatory minimum
sentences. These laws require offenders of certain crimes to receive fixed
sentences without parole. Mandatory sentences, especially for drugs, are
largely responsible for the ever-increasing number of people behind bars in
the United States. In May of 1998, drug defendants made up 60 percent of
the federal prison population, up from 25 percent in 1980. The
disproportionate number of African Americans being sent to prison for drug
use, however, is largely due to racism in the actual mandatory minimum laws
themselves.

Though crack and powdered cocaine are virtually the same drug (crack is
powder cocaine mixed with baking soda) possession of five grams of crack
gets you a mandatory five years in jail, while it takes 500 grams of
powdered cocaine to get this same sentence. The U.S. Sentencing Commission
reported that in 1995, whites accounted for 52 percent of all crack users
and African Americans, 38 percent. But just 4.1 percent of those sentenced
for crack offenses are white, while 88 percent are African Americans.
Seventy percent of our nation's prisons are made up of African Americans.
You now know that they are there through a variety of unjust racist laws.

Corporations are happily using these people for slave labor, which is
perfectly legal under the constitution. Almost 2 million human beings are
now locked up in our nation's prisons. The vast majority are not there
because they are murderers, rapists or other violent people. They are there
because prisons are a business in this country, whether we're talking about
private prisons or private companies using prison labor. The next time you
think of prison slave labor you don't have to think of China, think of the
United States. And go take a look at the 13th Amendment.