Chris Hedges: Prison State America: Inmates becoming corporate slaves in for-profit facilities

[marmar]

Published on Jan 14, 2015

For-profit prisons have created a “neo-slavery” in the US, according to award-winning journalist Chris Hedges. Inmates work eight hours per day for major corporations such as Chevron, Motorola, Nordstrom’s and Target, yet only have the possibility of making up $1.25 an hour. In addition, companies that provide services like phone calls overcharge prisoners on even the most basic services, making hundreds of millions in profits annually. RT’s Ben Swann speaks to Hedges, who explains how this shadowy system came into existence.

[Sunlei]

1. 13th Am. says slavery of prisoners is legal in America. Corps know this & have used it for decades

Amendment XIII

Section 1.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

[uhnope]

2. RT = Kremlin, land of the gulag slave state & Putin's kleptocracy

Does once-respectable journalist Chris Hedges work for RT now as a Putin explainer? Seems he's on it constantly

[marmar]

3. ^one trick pony

[uhnope]

4. ^Putin Apologist

[libodem]

7. You make me want to take a hide

[Johnny Rash]

5. "Prohibition on Alcohol" didn't work! "Prohibition on Drugs" didn't work, either"!

Maybe! Just, maybe, "Prohibition on Democracy" might do better!

[Scuba]

6. K&R And don't forget US Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wi) uses prison labor at his company ...

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/104605089.html

Companies operated by Ron Johnson, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, employed up to nine work-release inmates whose health care was paid for by state taxpayers.

The development is significant because Johnson has campaigned on a limited government theme, arguing that the private sector, and not government, is the best method for creating jobs.

The two companies are Pacur and Dynamic Drinkware, both of which operate in Oshkosh, and have been employing such prison labor since at least 1998, state records show. The workers are still under the custody of the state Department of Corrections and are paid by the two companies, but their health insurance and health care is taken care of by state taxpayers.

[MrMickeysMom]

8. Thank you marmar

And thankfully, RT did a great interview with Hedges, who is the saving grace of our insanity.

Yessssireeee…

Privatize everything for profit without oversight. Bankers and war criminals walk around free, still alluding us because they can, They bought the system and are profiting on it.