Alabama Prisoners Sue State Over ‘Modern-Day Slavery’ Work Programs

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December 12, 2023

By Dave Jamieson and Jessica Schulberg, Huffington Post

The lawsuit alleges that fast food companies and local governments benefit from an illegal “labor trafficking scheme.”

Prisoners argue that Alabama’s prison work system violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
(Associated Press)

Current and former prisoners in Alabama filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday arguing that the state’s prison labor system amounts to a “modern-day form of slavery” that violates the U.S. and Alabama constitutions.

The complaint, brought with the support of labor unions, alleges that Alabama profits to the tune of more than $450 million a year through coerced work, and that fast food companies and other private corporations benefit from an unlawful “labor trafficking scheme.”

[…]

The plaintiffs ― which include two labor groups, the Union of Southern Service Workers and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union ― argue that the state’s parole system has disproportionately trapped Black prisoners in jobs working for little or no pay.

Prisoners detail the experiences that led them to this decision in the original article.

Learn about the origins of prison slavery.

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