California is exploiting prison labor, paying people as little as $1/hour to fight wildfires.
Tell Governor Jerry Brown to stop exploiting the labor of California's incarcerated NOW !
Dear friend,
The wildfires happening in California over the past few months have been devastating for so many people. The fires have caused over $1 billion in damage to property, nearly 7,000 homes and buildings have been destroyed, and over 40 people have been killed.1 These wildfires have also had a big impact on California's incarcerated population who have risked their lives fighting wildfires--two inmates have already been killed this year in the line of duty.2 And the prisoners fighting these fires are making as little as $1/hour.
Prisoners are using hoes and chainsaws to manipulate the landscape and redirect fires in their tracks- this is no easy work.Fighting fires is back breaking labor and in the state of California many people who are doing this work have been forced to do so.The state has been exploiting prison labor and giving prisoners little to no options outside of taking on this dangerous work, where they’re making as little as $1/hour.3 In addition to this practice being exploitative and the pay being shameful, prison firefighters don't receive any formal certification that allows them to continue working as a firefighter when they've finished their sentence. Meaning that re-entry is just as difficult if they hadn't been working while in prison. Often the the use of prison labor is marketed as valuable for prisoners because it helps them with job placement after their sentence, however this is rarely the case. That's why we're calling on Gov. Jerry Brown to ensure that prisoners in this firefighter program receive the same wage as firefighters who aren't incarceratedand that a pathway is created for prisoners working as firefighters to have a real job on the outside--phasing this program out for good.
Prisoners, not protected under any work safety regulations, often return from fighting fires with broken ankles, arms, burns, and suffering from extreme exhaustion. To make matters worst, many of the prisoners doing this work are women, most of whom are mothers. These mothers often choose to take on this dangerous work because they are told that it could accelerate their release date by earning “good behavior”, usually resulting in a mere two days off your sentence.4
Even California's Governor Jerry Brown has stated that prisoners working as firefighters are doing "very important" work however, they continue to be unfairly compensated for their work. In fact, prisoners are being “leased out” in a fashion similar to slavery, their labor is given to public and private corporations as a part of the “convict-leasing system.” 5 Slavery in America technically ended in 1865, but a loophole in the 13th Amendment has allowed it to go on today “as a punishment for crimes. ” As a result, there are more people performing mandatory, essentially unpaid, hard labor in America today than there were in 1830.6
The more than 2 million incarcerated people in America today are legally considered slaves under the U.S constitution. Prison labor is a billion dollar industry that provides few if any positive outcomes for those who are actually doing the work--the prisoners. Supporters of prison labor argue that it is good for prisoners because it gives them something productive to do and that it can provide job skills that are transferable. However, this is often not the case. Rather, the prison industry is concerned about making money by contracting prison labor, not about the wellbeing of prisoners.
The movement to end prison labor is growing and over the past years people have pressured companies such as Victoria Secret's Whole Foods, and Aramark for their use of prison labor. Big corporations chose to use prison labor because it's cheap for them. However, by making it just as expensive to pay prisoners as it would be to pay people not in prison, the advantage of using prison labor would be greatly decreased. Essentially when prisoners are paid a fair wage, the government and corporations will be less likely to use prison labor; thus there will be less of an incentive to keep people incarcerated. Because keeping people in prison will just be a financial drain for states and corporations, providing no labor for them to exploit--this could drastically decrease the rate of incarceration in the U.S.
Until justice is real,
Clarise, Rashad, Arisha, Scott, Kristen, Anay, and the rest of the Color Of Change team
References :
1. "California fires : A rising toll in deaths and dollars", CBS News, 20 October 2017.
2. "California is running out of inmates to fight its fires", The Atlantic, 7 December 2017.
3. "Thousands of Firefighters in California are Inmates, Being paid $1 an hour on the line", Think Progress, 13 August 2015.
4. "Incarcerated women risk their lives fighting California fires. It's part of a long history of prison labor", PBS News Hour, 22 October 2017.
5. "The incarcerated women who fight California's wildfires", The New York Times, 31 August 2017.
6. "America never abolished slavery", Huffington Post, 2 March 2015.
Color Of Change is building a movement to elevate the voices of Black folks and our allies, and win real social and political change. Help keep our movement strong.
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