Op-Ed: Dr. Martin Luther King Day
| |
 |
A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. Henry A. Wallace.
“Fascism is capitalism in decay…Fascism is a lie told by bullies…Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal by King Trump
Dr. Martin Luther King Day
Forced prison labor in the “Land of the Free” Rooted in Racism and Economic Exploitation: Great American labor on sale now: prison labor.
| |||||||||||||||
This MLK Day, I’m starting a three-part series exploring Prison Labor on Sale, Black History Month (BHM), and the common struggles faced by Palestinians and African Americans.
Within the prisons of Free America, an exploitative labor system runs quietly, serving as a key part of the criminal justice structure while staying largely out of the public eye.
In both state and federal prisons, labor is a common part of correctional work programs, often paying those incarcerated less than $1 an hour. This system has continued a cycle of exploitation and marginalization that traces back to the end of slavery.
Prison labor sheds light on deep-rooted issues in the criminal justice system, workers’ rights, social justice, and the ethics of incarceration. Putting an end to it, or making sure incarcerated people are paid at least minimum wage, is an important move toward breaking down the carceral system that took shape after the 13th Amendment.
From fighting wildfires to cooking in kitchens or working in manufacturing plants for some of the country’s top food franchises and meat/chicken processing facilities, incarcerated workers play key roles across the United States, contributing billions of dollars in value to both public and private sectors.
Prison labor has long-standing ties to slavery, especially in the South. The current system grew out of convict leasing, which replaced chattel slavery after its abolition. It continues to function as a regressive way to raise money, similar to regressive taxes and the heavy load of fees and fines that unfairly impact poor Black and Brown communities.
Rather than increasing investment in public goods like education, housing, transportation, and the social safety net, federal and state governments are turning to corporations to run prisons. In the South, lawmakers are spending billions of taxpayer dollars on expanding private prisons or constructing new ones. Over the past two years, the South’s prison populations have risen more than in any other region (Kang-Brown and Zhang 2024).
In many Southern states, inmates are paid shockingly low wages—often less than 52 cents an hour on average, if they’re paid at all—and are denied the basic rights and protections most workers have. These exploitative practices trace back to slavery and are especially harsh in the South, which incarcerates people, predominantly Black men, at some of the highest rates in the world.
Forced prison labor, tied to racism and exploitative labor practices, is an economic system built on inhumane, outdated ways of generating revenue while concealing the true costs of incarceration. Every day, people in government and private prisons are compelled to work in harsh conditions for little or no pay.
Prison labor in the U.S. traces back to the legacy of slavery. Three years after the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved people in Confederate states following the Civil War, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted. It outlawed slavery, except as a punishment for a crime for which someone had been duly convicted.
The amendment pushed for the criminalization of more individuals to replace the freed slaves who had once supported the entire economy. The main targets were recently emancipated African Americans.
Are private prisons the worst of them all?
Private prisons run on a business model that makes money by detaining Black and Brown individuals, often for minor misdemeanors and without the chance to post cash bail. They pour significant funds into lobbying for policies that drive up incarceration rates.
Private prisons have been profiting from the Trump administration’s effort to detain more undocumented immigrants. ICE has been arresting and holding asylum seekers in ways that break both U.S. and international laws. Many of these immigrants are made to work for as little as a dollar a day or even just a candy bar, and those who refuse can end up in solitary confinement.
This MLK Day is a good time to advocate for divesting from and dismantling the private prison system, or for pushing stronger labor laws for those inside it. Key companies in the industry include Core Civic, GEO Group, Management and Training Corporation (MTC), and LaSalle Corrections. Interestingly, much of the funding for Core Civic and GEO Group comes from six major banks: Wells Fargo,
Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, BNP Paribas, SunTrust, and US Bancorp. California university students have made some impressive strides in this area. The entire University of California system withdrew $30 million from private prisons after efforts by the Afrikan Black Coalition, a racial-justice student group. They also severed ties with Wells Fargo, ending over $470 million in contracts due to the bank’s financing of Core Civic. That’s genuine action, not just words.
BDS works on reinvesting in communities hit hardest by criminalization. Around ten years ago, when news surfaced about the company’s links to prison labor, consumers pushed for a boycott, leading Whole Foods to cut ties with Colorado Correctional Industries. Like Walmart, Victoria’s Secret, and others, the company faced public backlash and brand damage over its association with prison labor and the private prison industry.
Sentencing For Sale.
The prison-industrial complex (PIC) has grown rapidly, much like the military-industrial complex (MIC), and has had a significant impact on young people and future generations, particularly through the school-to-prison pipeline.
https://moekhaku.substack.com/
Our youth, the future of our nation, face many challenges. As Victor Hugo said over a century ago, “If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The fault lies not with the one who commits the sin, but with the one who causes the darkness.”
For over a century, the lawmakers of Great Free America have ushered in an era of darkness, nurturing what Dr. Martin Luther King described as the three evils: racism, poverty, and the military-industrial complex. To that, I’d also add the prison-industrial complex. Prison labor in the US has a long, complicated history rooted in exploitation and forced work.
Out of more than two million people locked up in state and federal prisons, over seventy percent are involved in some form of labor. While much of the work resembles jobs found outside prison walls, the pay is shockingly low, averaging only about 52 cents an hour.
 |
Any society where it’s a crime to be black, Latino or ethnically different is a society based on psychological fascism. The definition of fascism is he marriage of corporation and state. Fascism is sort of narcissistic cult. But let there be no misunderstanding the war against terror is every bit as important as our fight against fascism in World War II. Or our struggle against the spread of Communism during the Cold War.
| ||||||||||
© 2026 Mohammed Khaku
548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104