The Land of the Free.. Maybe?

The United States of America is probably the first country to claim that it is the “Land of the Free”, but with the highest incarceration rate in the world, how free are we? At 737 prisoners per 100,000 people, America also accounts for half of the global prisoner population. With an astonishing 2.19 million prisoners, and ever growing, this really puts into perspective how large the US prison system is…

So why exactly are there so many prisoners in a first-world country?

There are many theories attempting to explain this phenomenon, but Whitney Benns’s theory in “American Slavery, Reinvented” she highlights the use of prisoners as cheap manual laborers, or slaves. Prisoners, as long as they’re cleared as healthy, are often forced to do many manual labor tasks such as agriculture, mining, or manufacturing for little to no pay. Some incarcerated workers do receive pay, but often are paid only as much as ten cents per hour. At ten cents per hour, this is far below the minimum wage for any state in America and is no where near a living wage anywhere in the nation.

Some prisons have even began a convict-leasing system where for a leasing fee, companies or farm owners can “lease” convicts to work for them. This turns out to be a absurdly good deal for the company or farm owner since they do not have to directly compensate the convicts in any way. Benns sees this as the modern day slavery since companies receive manual labor for little to no cost and incarcerated workers essentially have no legal rights.

In a quote by Michel Foucault, from his book Discipline & Punish The Birth of the Prison, he states “Discipline increases the forces of the body (in economic terms of utility) and diminishes these same forces (in political terms of obedience).” While this quote isn’t a direct response to the American prison system, its meaning perfectly describes the enslavement of prison inmates.

“Discipline” in this quote, is the prison system that punishes in order to correct inmates or discipline them. The prison system “increases the forces of the body (in economic terms of utility)” refers to the manual labor tasks performed by prisoners. Prisoners are forced to preform tasks that might not benefit them personally economically, but their tasks increase the economics of those who oversee them such as the prison system or companies. He is essentially referring to the cheap manual labor.

Foucault also states that discipline “diminishes these same forces (in political terms of obedience).” This is a reference to the prisoners’ loss of constitutional rights such as the right to a fair wage as well as the right to vote, or political power.

Whitney Benns’s and Michel Foucault’s statements are both valid critiques against the American prison system that both highlight the underlying problem with the prison system, but perhaps this is larger indicator that the “Land of the Free” is simply a facade. A facade that masks discipline as the real driving force behind the prison system in America.