Exclusive: Inmates to strike in Alabama, declare prison is “running a slave empire”

Salon ^ | April 18, 2014 | Josh Eidelson

[2ndDivisionVet]

Melvin Ray

Inmates at an Alabama prison plan to stage a work stoppage this weekend and hope to spur an escalating strike wave, a leader of the effort told Salon in a Thursday phone call from his jail cell.

“We decided that the only weapon or strategy … that we have is our labor, because that’s the only reason that we’re here,” said Melvin Ray, an inmate at the St. Clair correctional facility and founder of the prison-based group Free Alabama Movement. “They’re incarcerating people for the free labor.” Spokespeople for Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and his Department of Corrections did not respond to midday inquiries Thursday. Jobs done by inmates include kitchen and laundry work, chemical and license plate production, and furniture-making. In 2011, Alabama’s Department of Agriculture reportedly discussed using inmates to replace immigrants for agricultural work; in 2012, the state Senate passed a bill to let private businesses employ prison labor.

Inmates at St. Clair and two other prisons, Holman and Elmore, previously refused to work for several days in January. A Department of Corrections spokesperson told the Associated Press at the time that those protests were peaceful, and told AL.com that some of the inmates’ demands were outside the authority of the department to address. The state told the AP that a handful of inmates refused work, and others were prevented from working by safety or weather issues. In contrast, Ray told Salon the January effort drew the participation of all of St. Clair’s roughly 1,300 inmates and nearly all of Holman’s roughly 1,100. He predicted this weekend’s work stoppage would spread further and grow larger than that one, but also accused prison officials of hampering F.A.M.’s organizing by wielding threats and sending him and other leaders to solitary confinement. “It’s a hellhole,”(continued)

[PapaBear3625]

Another possible compromise might be to only use convict labor for public-works projects, to eliminate the profit motive entirely and really focus on the whole “debt to society” angle.

Public employee unions, and construction unions, would scream. other than that, I think it's a great idea. Teach the prisoners construction skills, get them to work filling in potholes and such.

[kevkrom]

I’m all for banning unionization of public employees by Constitutional amendment, if it takes that much to get it done.

[Impy]

I agree with you.

The whole concept doesn’t make much sense to me. The only people that should be locked up somewhere are those that are too dangerous to be left free, yet don’t deserve death. That should be a small group.