Hindsight for foresight insight: The evolution of slavery into the prison system

Jan 19, 2023 • Uncategorized

Editor’s Note: Bourbon street, like New Orleans, is a place like no other. Anything goes in this iconic street; it has often been referred to as “the life of a party town” and “a place for revelry of all sorts”. It appears as if even the most erratic behaviors are legal there. In Bourbon Street partygoers have liberties like open-container drinking and public nudity, which are illegal everywhere else. The street has a never-ending selection of bars and restaurants with different music genres and themes that cater to even the most unique of tastes. The liberties allowed on Bourbon Street often bring to mind the question of “How is this legal?” and have given New Orleans a wild reputation. Famous musicians like Mannie Fresh attest to this reputation saying, “When a lot of people are calling it a night at 2 AM, New Orleans is coming alive,” comments such as these have made New Orleans nightlife iconic. People travel across the country to come let loose and lose their inhibitions in Bourbon Street, especially during Mardi Gras when the city sees an influx of approximately 1.4 million people. The party reputation of New Orleans and the spotlight placed has brought many benefits like tourism to the state but has also resulted in a lack of attention towards more serious issues. New Orleans has deeply entrenched issues regarding its prison system and inequalities with race. Preoccupying stories about how women in the Orleans parish prison can get sterilized to reduce their prison sentence and how prison labor is comparable to slavery don’t get half the attention of stories about the best bars in Bourbon. It would be useful to open people’s eyes to the realities of New Orleans and give attention to the issues that need resolving shifting from people asking, “How is this legal?” to “How is this not illegal?”. This piece was originally published on August 10, 2021.

Editor’s Note: That’s right, we’re taking a look back (you know, hindsight) to see how we can best prepare (that’s the foresight; I think you get the idea) for the future, and in order to do that, we worked with professor Betsy Weiss (Communications professor at Tulane University) and her students to investigate the prison system and what we can and should be learning from its past and present.

It’s no shock that America’s prison system is deeply flawed, but to what extent do its shortcomings lie? Unlike in many of the world’s other developed countries (and despite the Eighth Amendment), prisoners in the United States are subjected to cruel, harsh conditions, deprived of adequate medical care, and used as a cheap labor source. Many prisons are overcrowded, understaffed, and extremely violent. With few exceptions, able bodied inmates are required to work for little to no pay. The liberating 13th Amendment even sets up the foundation of prison labor, outlawing slavery with the exception being “as a punishment for crime.” This loophole provides the constitutional grounds to the legality of prison labor, demoting prisoners to second class citizenship. In many states, convicted felons lose access to public social benefits, housing, and the right to vote — all of which would help them reintegrate back into society.

It’s important to note that America’s desire for cheap labor has been present throughout its history. The abolition of outright slavery failed to deter pro-slavery landowners in their efforts to keep the white hierarchy alive, particularly in the former Confederate states. Supporters of slavery did not truly have reasoning to consider black individuals genetically inferior, but it was this sentiment that “justified” the inhumane treatment the majority of slaves received. As a result of this desire to maintain a divide of power, a new system of inexpensive labor emerged in the South. Sharecropping allowed tenant farmers, many of whom were former slaves, to rent out land in exchange for a percentage of the crops harvested. Uncertain harvests and high interest rates kept sharecroppers indebted to their landowners. Black families remained trapped in a perpetual cycle of poverty that continues to persist today.

Although freed from the bondage of chattel slavery, many found themselves still exploited and bound to their new financial burdens. The practice of sharecropping had declined. However, people of color found themselves the target of yet another conflict. The late 20th century marked the official declaration of the war on drugs by the Nixon administration. Drug use continues to be a main perpetrator of mass incarceration, particularly for Black and Latino communities. According to the ACLU, America’s prison population has grown by a shocking 700% since 1970. Of those imprisoned, Black Americans are over five times more likely to be incarcerated compared to their white counterparts, making for a disproportionately black prison labor force. Lengthy mandatory minimums keep primarily nonviolent offenders imprisoned and locked away for decades, taking an emotional and especially financial toll on the prisoners and their families. In addition to court and other legal fees, convicts are required to pay for costly medical visits and other necessities. This financial debt incentivizes inmates to work, providing a cheap, readily available workforce for prison facilities and other private companies to extort.

Prisoners are not required to be paid for their work at all. Those who are paid earn on average as little as $0.12-$0.40 per hour. The states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas do not pay their prisoners for their labor. In the CNN film “American Jail,” Beth Schwartzapfel describes the injustices of prison labor. “If they (the prisoners) say no I’m not going to work — they can write you up for that, they can send you to solitary for that…” Inmates in these particular states are involuntary forced to work for free under the threat of disciplinary action. With the legal definition of slavery being “the state of being under the control of someone where the person is forced to work for another,” one could consider prison labor to be a form a slavery.

The majority of prisons are kept in dirty conditions

In the US, many cotton production prisons are simply renovated plantations. The Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola, is named after the very plantation that the territory occupies. The documentary “Angola for Life: Rehabilitation and Reform Inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary” showcases acres of inmate grown crops guarded by armed officers on horseback. The nearly 80% African American makeup of Angola’s prison population makes for an uncomfortable comparison. In a follow up article to the documentary, the Atlantic writes, “To the untrained eye, the scenes from the documentary could have been shot 150 years ago. The imagery haunts, and the stench of slavery and racial oppression lingers through the 13 minutes of footage.”

Regardless of whether prison labor in America is comparable to slavery, the bottom line is that reform is necessary. The negative stigma around prisoners (and slaves in the past) has drastically affected and excused the way that they’re treated. Many justify the dehumanizing treatment of prisoners by generalizing them as dangerous criminals. The current system’s emphasis on punishment rather than reform and rehabilitation has led to over 50% of released convicts to be incarcerated again. In addition, lawmakers should work to make prison labor more equitable. Higher wages, safer working conditions, and the right of refusal are all absolutely necessary to create better working environments for prisoners.

If you are interested in learning more about the injustices of the prison system, feel free to check out these sources:

https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1087&context=cecr

https://eji.org/issues/prison-conditions/

https://www.aclu.org/issues/smart-justice/mass-incarceration

https://corpaccountabilitylab.org/calblog/2020/8/5/if-prison-workers-are-essential-we-should-treat-them-like-it-prison-labor-in-the-us-part-i

This piece is part of an on-going series produced in Professor Betsy Weiss’s class, “Punishment and Redemption in the Prison Industrial Complex,” which is taught at Tulane University.

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12/19/21