Economic factors that turn prisoners into sources of cheap labor
Another challenge in the US prison system is the transformation of prisoners into sources of cheap labor. Unlike a normal job, the inmates have no breaks, no holidays, and are often paid extremely low wages.
Using the sources to support your analysis
The issue of prison labor is presented in the source “The Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery?”, which shows how inmates in American prisons are exploited for the profit of big corporations. The source mentions companies such as “IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell” (l. 83), which depend on “the economic boom generated by prison labor” (ll. 85-86) to make a profit. The same source shows how prisoners are often paid “25 cents an hour” (ll. 19-20) and punished if they refuse to work.
The source also claims that prison labor is “an imitation of Nazi Germany” (l. 36) and a form of modern slavery. However, hundreds of private corporations keep on contracting prison labor, as it is cheap and easy. The source gives the example of a few companies that have fired their workers and contracted the services of prisoners instead, as they turned out to be a source of cheap and effective labor (ll. 95-101).
