truthdig | Prisons employ and exploit the ideal worker. Prisoners do not receive
benefits or pensions. They are not paid overtime. They are forbidden to
organize and strike. They must show up on time. They are not paid for
sick days or granted vacations. They cannot formally complain about
working conditions or safety hazards. If they are disobedient, or
attempt to protest their pitiful wages, they lose their jobs and can be
sent to isolation cells. The roughly 1 million prisoners who work for
corporations and government industries in the American prison system are
models for what the corporate state expects us all to become. And
corporations have no intention of permitting prison reforms that would
reduce the size of their bonded workforce. In fact, they are seeking to
replicate these conditions throughout the society.
States, in the name of austerity, have stopped providing prisoners
with essential items including shoes, extra blankets and even toilet
paper, while starting to charge them for electricity and room and board.
Most prisoners and the families that struggle to support them are
chronically short of money. Prisons are company towns. Scrip, rather
than money, was once paid to coal miners, and it could be used only at
the company store. Prisoners are in a similar condition. When they go
broke—and being broke is a frequent occurrence in prison—prisoners must
take out prison loans to pay for medications, legal and medical fees and
basic commissary items such as soap and deodorant. Debt peonage inside
prison is as prevalent as it is outside prison.
States impose an array of fees on prisoners. For example, there is a
10 percent charge imposed by New Jersey on every commissary purchase.
Stamps have a 10 percent surcharge. Prisoners must pay the state for a
15-minute deathbed visit to an immediate family member or a 15-minute
visit to a funeral home to view the deceased. New Jersey, like most
other states, forces a prisoner to reimburse the system for overtime
wages paid to the two guards who accompany him or her, plus mileage
cost. The charge can be as high as $945.04. It can take years to pay off
a visit with a dying father or mother.
Fines, often in the thousands of dollars, are assessed against many
prisoners when they are sentenced. There are 22 fines that can be
imposed in New Jersey, including the Violent Crime Compensation
Assessment (VCCB), the Law Enforcement Officers Training & Equipment
Fund (LEOT) and Extradition Costs (EXTRA). The state takes a percentage
each month out of prison pay to pay down the fines, a process that can
take decades. If a prisoner who is fined $10,000 at sentencing must rely
solely on a prison salary he or she will owe about $4,000 after making
payments for 25 years. Prisoners can leave prison in debt to the state.
And if they cannot continue to make regular payments—difficult because
of high unemployment—they are sent back to prison. High recidivism is
part of the design.
