The Brutal History of Prison Labor

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• The concept of prison labor as a form of punishment is surprisingly modern, gaining traction after Thomas More's *Utopia* suggested it as an alternative to execution or mutilation, with three main goals: deterrence, rehabilitation, and free labor.  Copied to clipboard!
• The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution explicitly permits involuntary servitude as punishment for a convicted prisoner, creating a loophole that led directly to systems like convict leasing in the South, which often mirrored chattel slavery.  Copied to clipboard!
• Modern prison labor, despite reforms like the end of chain gangs and convict leasing, continues to operate without federal worker protections (like OSHA or FLSA) and with incarcerated workers earning an average of only 52 cents per hour, often resulting in minimal net pay after deductions.  Copied to clipboard!

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Origins of Prison Labor Idea

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(00:03:30)

• Key Takeaway: Prison labor as punishment is a relatively new concept, proposed by Thomas More in Utopia as an alternative to lethal or physically punitive measures like hanging or stocks.
• Summary: Prior to the Enlightenment, European punishment focused on execution or public ridicule like the stocks. Thomas More suggested putting criminals to work, citing benefits like deterrence and rehabilitation. The most obvious upside, however, was obtaining free labor. This idea was not immediately adopted by governments.

Transportation and Indentured Servitude

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(00:06:00)

• Key Takeaway: Before formal prisons, British colonies used transportation, sentencing criminals to labor in America or Australia, which benefited colonial employers seeking cheap labor.
• Summary: Convicts sentenced to transportation, often for minor crimes like theft or vagrancy, were sent to the colonies. Plantation owners favored this system as it provided very cheap labor compared to the enslaved African market. This early system, aimed exclusively at white individuals, was termed indentured servitude, with the state not intervening in punishment disputes between owners and enslaved people.

Rise of Penitentiaries and Auburn Model

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(00:10:43)

• Key Takeaway: The shift from jails to penitentiaries, inspired by Quaker ideals of ‘redemptive suffering,’ quickly led to the implementation of prison labor models like the Auburn system.
• Summary: Prisons, designed for punishment through confinement and reflection, emerged after the American Revolution, replacing simple jails used only for pre-sentencing detention. The Auburn Prison model quickly established a norm where private businesses leased prison buildings and inmate labor. Inmates at Auburn Prison were instrumental in constructing Sing Sing, demonstrating the rapid adoption of this labor model.

Post-Civil War Convict Leasing

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(00:13:15)

• Key Takeaway: The 13th Amendment’s loophole allowing forced labor for convicted prisoners enabled the South to immediately transition from chattel slavery to convict leasing, often targeting Black individuals through pretextual arrests.
• Summary: While the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, it explicitly permitted involuntary servitude as punishment for crime, which the South exploited via convict leasing. Black Codes criminalized being Black and unemployed, leading to arrests that funneled individuals back into forced labor, sometimes on the same plantations. By 1898, convict leasing accounted for 73% of Alabama’s state revenue.

Chain Gangs and Brutal Labor

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(00:29:33)

• Key Takeaway: Chain gangs, prevalent in the South through the mid-20th century, involved chaining inmates together for grueling, often lethal, manual labor like road construction under abysmal conditions.
• Summary: Chain gangs involved prisoners being chained at the ankle, even while sleeping, and forced to work 10 to 15 hours daily building roads, sometimes using sledgehammers on solid rock. This system was inherently racist, using the threat of violence and torture to maintain control. Public outcry, fueled by exposés like Robert Burns’ book, eventually led to the decline of chain gangs by the 1950s and 60s.

Modern Incarceration and Labor Statistics

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(00:38:58)

• Key Takeaway: The massive 700% rise in U.S. incarceration between 1970 and 2008 was not driven by crime rate increases but by policy shifts, and today, incarcerated workers lack basic federal labor protections.
• Summary: The U.S. incarceration rate increased 700% while the general population rose only 50% between 1970 and 2008, largely due to ’tough on crime’ policies. Currently, about 80% of incarcerated workers labor for the prison itself, and courts have ruled that prisoners are not employees, meaning they are excluded from protections like OSHA. The average pay for these workers is only 52 cents per hour, often after deductions for room and board.