I sincerely admire all of these folks coming out to mourn and protest the DYING AMERICAN DREAM. If I was 20 years younger I would be right there with them. My hope is that perhaps some OWS organizer might see my suggestions and take them to the OWS body.
It is my understanding that the lack of action required to alleviate the emergency JOBS situation is one of the issues that the OWS protestors are seeking to publicize. They are also expressing anger over the fact many people have been unemployed so long that their benefits have run out and people are left struggling to survive; meanwhile Wall Street traders are being paid millions of dollars in bonuses for just simply doing their jobs. The conventional propaganda line repeated over and over by the Main Stream Media (MSM) is that all of America’s jobs have been shipped overseas to China and India. This is only partially true, and more details follow below.
However, as a disclaimer I will acknowledge that since the 1970’s American high tech corporations (particularly the computer chip suppliers) have been maintaining manufacturing operations in various overseas locations such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia. This was a time long before China and India emerged as the leading manufacturing sites for the entire western world.
My object in writing this post is a first pass attempt to make it easier to “connect the dots” when considering those contributory factors that have created the grim employment picture in 2011 America. One such factor that the OWS organizers and planners to must carefully scrutinize is the AMERICAN PRISON INDUSTRY and all of its agents and partnerships. It is also very important to consider the additional negative impact the prison industry has had on the current dire employment environment.
In conjunction with this it is also useful to consider the explosive growth in prison populations across the nation, now being fueled by the growth of more effective policing of illegal immigration. In 1980 there was less than 500,000 adults incarcerated in state or federal prisons. At year end of 2009 there were 2,292,133 adults incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Furthermore there were 4,933,667 adults either on probation or on parole. Thus at this time in 2009 there were a total of 7,225,800 adults under correctional supervision or a total of 3.1% of the entire American adult population.
Bob Sloan of the Daily KOS has written extensively about the rapidly expanding prison industry and he provides an excellent overview which I have quoted below.
“Today state by state…job by job, American’s are seeing their jobs disappear behind prison walls and fences. Oh they’re not leaving the job markets in bulk, just a few jobs here, another industry there, public jobs and private sector jobs in about equal numbers. Those responsible for this erosion of U.S. jobs deflect criticism by claiming the products made are merely a small portion of our GDP. 2% of the call center market, another 3% of manufacturing, 5% of other markets. They advise that involving inmates in such industry labor helps train them and instills a work ethic that can be used upon release to ensure employment and thus reduce recidivism.
Proponents also downplay the number of inmates involved in this work, officially claiming that fewer than 100,000 inmates are being worked in any form of actual industry. However that number is seriously under-reported. “According to Noah Zatz at UCLA Law, “well over 600,000, and probably close to a million, inmates are working full time in jails and prisons throughout the United States. Perhaps some of them built your desk chair: office furniture, especially in state universities and the federal government, is a major prison labor product. Inmates also take hotel reservations at corporate call centers, make body armor for the U.S. military, and manufacture prison chic fashion accessories, in addition to the iconic
task of stamping license plates.” We have a word for work without pay–slavery–and we know of a work of fiction that depicts a large powerful nation that used large pools of unpaid labor to produce things: The Gulag Archipelago. Think that’s hyperbole? Perhaps you should consider visiting your local state prison.”
Bob Sloan’s Blog contains excellent material which also covers the up-to-date demographics of the prison industry’s expansion to meet the current budgetary problems of many states.
It is strongly emphasized that there is an ever present governmental control establishing the framework which makes this form of prison labor exploitation possible and HIGHLY profitable to the public/private partners involved. The public/private partners can be identified as follows; the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP) created by Congress in 1979 is the public component; and the National Correctional Industries Association (NCIA) is the private industrial component.
The PIECP legislation encourages state and local correctional agencies to form partnerships with private companies to give inmates real work opportunities. PIECP allows inmates to work for a private employer outside the institution and earn the prevailing wage, which is at least at the federal wage, for a particular type or work or occupation. Prisoners working in “traditional industry” earn a wage prescribed by state legislation, ranging from no pay to $1.25 per hour.
I have provided a partial list of the range of jobs that inmates working under the provisions of PIECP can satisfactorily perform. The following list of PIECP jobs is for the state of IOWA.
1. Vehicle Service Bodies, Mfg’ing of trailers, Commercial steel trailers.
2. Mfg’ing window treatments (commercial).
3. Wreck rebuilding, Truck and trailer painting, frame and front end work (Commercial vehicles)
4. Blow molded plastic products (commercial).
5. Boat mfg’ing (commercial).
6. Newspaper inserts (commercial).
7. Trailer washing (commercial).
8. Custom screen printing and embroidery (commercial).
An in-depth description of PIECP written by Marilyn C Moses and Cindy J. Smith is provided here.
PIECP was a well-intentioned piece of federal legislation but unfortunately its authors could not even begin to visualize the amount of misapplication that has turned the law into what actually constitutes 21st century racketeering. A series of new state laws recently enacted and placed into widespread use actually serves to defeat the original intended goals of PIECP. These are the new state laws that require all potential employers to effectively screen all job applicants for any criminal record. Therefore if an inmate learns a trade or profession under PIECP, he/she likely will not get an opportunity to use these skills in some company on the outside as the existence of their criminal record will prevent them from obtaining employment where they can use these skills.
The denial of employment (due to a criminal record) will discourage newly paroled inmates attempting to make a positive transition back into the community ultimately leading to higher rates of recidivism. In addition to increasing rates of recidivism, prison industry corporations have embarked on an almost explosive growth plan working closely with law enforcement and elected officials within each state. Simply put in order for the prison industry to grow, the supply of free prison labor must also grow in order to support the expansion.
Members of the NCIA have been running advertisements and public announcements, setting forth the specious argument that prison industry has been very efficient and profitable for the tax payer, with estimates that on average tax savings of greater than $5000 a year per inmate have been realized. NCIA members have been working especially close with those states whose governments are totally under the control of the Republican Party (Republican Governor and Republican legislature). It certainly is no coincident that the anti-union legislation adopted by a number of states all have identical language and was initially authored by ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council). Wisconsin, one of the first states to pass a series of anti-union laws has already started replacing state workers with prison labor.
Another fact recently published reports that last year prison labor generated over 2.6 billion dollars in profit nationwide for private prison industry. The actual wages paid to prisoners vary all over the lot and in accordance to each respective state. If prisoners actually cross state lines traveling to and from their place of work then they are entitled to earn the equivalent of the federal minimum wage ($7.25 per hour for non-exempt covered employees). Otherwise their pay is determined by the respective state. A general comparison shows that some prisoners working in a PIECP type jobs can earn 60 cents a day, with the possibility of a $5 a week bonus. In many of the southern states all of the inmate’s pay is withheld by the state as either “restitution” or as “contributory” towards reducing the cost of incarcerating of the inmate.
The discussion thus far has provided a brief overview of the billion dollar business of the prison industry built exclusively on prison labor. Keeping all of the foregoing in mind consider this. The 2.6 billion dollars of profit paid to the prison industry is exactly the same as paying that large sum of money to a foreign country for the use of its low cost slave labor. THE MONEY DOES NOT CIRCULATE WITHIN ANY AMERICAN COMMUNITY! Prisoners are taking jobs that other Americans worked in the past to earn money to pay bills, purchase food and other items in their community’s local stores. This was money that they also used to pay THEIR property taxes or rent in their local communities. In other words there is no difference in the monetary damage to American communities caused by sending local JOBS overseas or having them done locally in America by prison labor. Under control of the prison industry, THE MONEY BYPASSES THE LOCAL COMMUNITY AND THEREBY FINANCIALLY STARVES THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY. Homeowners can’t get work (because prisoners have taken their jobs) so their homes go into foreclosure, so there is less property taxes coming into the local government, who in turn have to lay off police, fire, teachers and other government employees in order to match the diminished revenues coming into their coffers.
Looking to the future, President Obama has proposed funding infrastructure projects around the nation to “put people back to work”. However, legislative controls will be needed to prevent money from Treasury intended to help relieve the national unemployment problem from actually winding up as funding for the prison industry or their NCIA agents. ALL of the money targeted for infrastructure jobs or so-call “Green” jobs such as manufacturing solar panels or installing solar panels or wind turbines will immediately be targeted by ACA and other NCIA member companies to be performed by prison labor.
Finally, if you are one of the many brave souls spending your time in the midst of the OWS movement and you are really steadfastly dedicated to fixing the corruption in America please start with the momentous task of dismantling the national prison industry. It is fair to say that at this time, facilitated by cash strapped state governments, prison slave labor has invaded small businesses all around the country. These are the same small businesses that Washington politicians have been looking to since 2008 to lead the eventual turn around in American employment. However, as long as prison labor continues to be employed in the existing jobs, while competing for any new jobs that may open up in the future, America will be destined to continue her decline into economic chaos.