Prison Labor: The New Convict Leasing

One "bloc" of my Junior Theme, which attempts to answer the question "Why are there so many African American people in jail," focuses on prison labor, the use of prisoners by companies for cheap labor. This practice is not a new phenomenon. It is rooted in slavery.

The history of prison labor goes back to the 1800's, at the beginnings of convict leasing. Post-emancipation, Southern states found that "commerce and transportation had collapsed" and "The railroads and levees lay in ruins" (Oshinsky 12). Additionally, many whites were angry and didn't know how to deal with the newly-freed African American population; they needed a new, formal way to control the free African Americans. "An extensive system was created in the South in order to maintain the racial and economic relationship of slavery" (Khalek 3). Convict leasing was born. Thousands of ex-slaves were imprisoned for the smallest of infractions and forced to "suffer and die under conditions far worse than anything they had experienced as slaves" (Oshinsky 35) for decades to come.

The post-emancipation practice of convict leasing bears shocking resemblance to the present-day practice of prison labor. Today, "private companies have a cheap, easy labor market... large corporations increasingly employ prisoners as a source of cheap and sometimes free labor" (Khalek 2). Prison labor, like convict leasing, is an extremely profitable practice that can be even cheaper for companies than the use of third-world sweatshops (Khalek 1). Both force convicts to work for nearly nothing, with harsh consequences for not complying, completely legally. Convict leasing allowed private plantations cheap labor and maximum profit; prison labor allows private companies to do the same thing.

Prison labor produces the same results as convict leasing did in the years after emancipation, though the legislation has changed with the times. Just as convict leasing was used as a new way to control the African American population, so too does the practice of prison labor. A shocking number of African Americans are imprisoned today as a way to continue this cycle of control, and as a means of cheap labor and for private companies to maximize profit.

One "bloc" of my Junior Theme, which attempts to answer the question "Why are there so many African American people in jail," focuses on prison labor, the use of prisoners by companies for cheap labor. This practice is not a new phenomenon. It is rooted in slavery.