5 Most Horrifying Facts About America’s Prison System

One of the most influential and highly criticized institutions in the country is much worse than you think.

1. Prison labor was used as a direct substitute for slavery after its abolition in the 13th Amendment

While the 13th Amendment made it illegal for individuals or corporations to own slaves or use free labor, it notes that this does not apply in the case of punishment for a crime. Instead of fully abolishing slavery, it effectively transitions the legal authority to own slaves to the state. This becomes even more alarming when you learn that, during the Reconstruction Era of US history immediately following the Civil War, the first major spike in incarceration was recorded, and the state began “leasing” inmates to local businesses and corporations for the purpose of rebuilding the south.

The events that followed are best described by historian Kim Gilmore: “Convict labor became increasingly racialized: it was assumed that blacks were more suitable for hard physical labor on southern prison farms and on corporate railroad and company construction projects. Contrary to popular representations of chain gang labor, not only black men, but also black women were forced to work on the lines and on hard labor projects, revealing how the slave order was being mirrored in the emerging punishment systems.”

Basically, immediately after slavery was abolished, Black Codes emerged in the deep south, (and were later replaced by Jim Crow laws), which made it so that the newly freed slaves could be arrested for little or no reason at all, imprisoned, and then forced back into mandatory physical labor. In the Reconstruction Era of U.S. history, this loophole meant that slaves were being forced to rebuild the very states that had enslaved them for hundreds of years. This is only scratching the surface of the direct line connection between the institution of slavery and the rise of the Prison-Industrial Complex, and I highly recommend reading the rest of the linked article to learn more.

2. Unpaid prison labor is as pervasive of a problem as ever. There are multiple industries that rely on unpaid or lowly paid prison labor to make millions of dollars in profits

The US spends roughly $87 billion annually on incarceration. As if this price tag weren’t already outrageous enough, this number is artificially reduced by forcing inmates to perform tasks like laundry services, cooking, and cleaning, and paying them well below minimum wage. Typical salaries for prison labor is estimated to be between $0.86 and $3.45 per day.

As one former inmate explained, “My day would start at 4 a.m. I would go into the kitchen. I would make the breakfast for 1,200 men. I would work lunch. I would work dinner. And I’d make $2.25 a day.” He also recalled working through grueling conditions while he was physically ill, only to spend most of his paychecks on basic services like phone calls which can cost over $5.

While the work is technically voluntary, since it is used as a way for inmates to reduce sentences, there are harsh punishments for those who ask for better conditions or days off. Other prisons go even farther, throwing inmates in solitary confinement for weeks at a time if they refuse to work for the absurd wages provided. Another interviewer explained, “One formerly incarcerated person I spoke to said that those who refused to work would be placed in a housing unit known as the jungle, where drug use and violence were rampant, as a form of punishment.”

The work being done goes beyond upkeep of the private prisons too, with jobs like making furniture, staffing call centers, and making military equipment. In each of these cases, prison labor is used by corporations to increase the profits of manufactured goods, at the expense of the rights and safety of laborers.

3. For-profit prisons and other industries shape public policy to keep incarceration and their own revenues high

We have already done a much more in depth look at the Prison-Industrial Complex and its effects on the nation, which you can find and read about here. To summarize a few of the points made in that article, private prisons have several methods of inflating the incarcerated population. The first is through lobbying to oppose legislation that would reduce their reach and influence, even when it is beneficial to the nation as a whole. In total, the two largest for-profit prisons alone have spent almost $25 million lobbying government officials and preventing legislation from passing, as well as to gain lucrative contracts for themselves. This spending corresponds to a doubling of the private prison population from 2000 to 2010 and a current annual revenue of $3.3 billion.

Criminal justice reform is a topic that has been studied vigorously for decades, with overwhelming bipartisan support, and countless reports documenting the benefits of reduced incarceration. In spite of all of this, there is never any major legislation addressing these issues. This is largely because of for-profit companies like CoreCivic fighting against any real attempts to solve systemic problems. As the Corrections Corporation of America (now known as CoreCivic) warned their shareholders in 2014, “the demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.”

Going beyond just opposing change, they frequently go so far as to push for legislation that will increase incarceration and impose longer sentences, thereby expanding their business. To do this more effectively, three of the largest prisons have been active members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where, as Alan Greenblatt describes it, “ALEC has been a major force behind both privatizing state prison space and keeping prisons filled. It puts forward bills providing for mandatory minimum sentences and three-strikes sentencing requirements. About 40 states passed versions of ALEC’s Truth in Sentencing model bill, which requires prisoners convicted of violent crimes to serve most of their sentences without chance of parole”.

4. We regularly allow a few corrupt individuals to ruin thousands of lives, especially the lives of children

I’m going to give a warning for this one because this specific story, while not an isolated incident, is extremely upsetting. I’ve been trying for a few days to write this section simply because I’m struggling to properly convey how horrible the situation is.

Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan were elected to serve as Luzerne County Judges in 1995 and 1994 respectively. For over a decade after this, they appeased their constituents with the standard “tough on crime” approach, focusing on the youth of Pennsylvania in an attempt to repair what many people see as a decline in the morality of minors. Their terms were spent rapidly funneling thousands of children to the local juvenile detention facility, mostly through trials that lasted only a few minutes and did not provide legal representation for the children involved, a blatant violation of U.S. law. Many of the “crimes” were as minor as stealing change out of unlocked cars, creating a fake MySpace page for a school administrator, or wearing drug paraphernalia.

This continued for years and involved over 2500 minors and, while some journalists and non-profits attempted to look into the issue, no action was ever taken to stop them. Finally, in 2007, it came out that the judges in question had been receiving kickbacks from the detention facility totaling about $2.6 million. The judges were tried and sentenced, and are now serving decades in federal prisons. Attempts to expunge the records of the children began but for hundreds or even thousands of them, their lives had already been irreparably damaged. As one of the individuals testifying against Ciavarella explained, “You stripped me of 15 years of my life. I took up a drug addiction to cope with everything he put me through. The emotional stress, the trauma, it was the worst experience of my life, still dealing with it today”.

What bothers me personally the most about this case, is that these actions went on for at least 5 years, as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed all cases that appeared before Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008. There were members of the judicial system that were aware of the violations, and complaints that were raised by parents and other concerned adults, but no action was taken until it was discovered that the judges were taking bribes to commit these acts. Not only were their actions always illegal but, given the mountains of evidence that imprisoning children does not improve their outcomes, they were incredibly shortsighted as well. We shouldn’t have needed to learn that there were bribes involved before putting a stop to it, but everyone involved had accepted the unfair and harmful punishments being imposed on children for years. It raises the question, what would have happened if they hadn’t been taking bribes from the facilities involved? If they had engaged in this criminal activity without being paid for it, would they have been removed from their positions of authority, or would they have continued to destroy the lives of thousands of children?

Based on the equally horrifying story of Judge Donna Scott Davenport, I do not believe their behavior would have been punished. The similarities between these two cases are striking. Judge Davenport also touts a “tough on crime” nature, specifically in the case of juveniles, in an effort to halt what she perceives as a decline in the nation’s youth. In her first year as a juvenile court referee, her county, Rutherford, Tennessee violated federal law 191 times by imprisoning children for longer than the allowed 24 hours. These violations usually took the form of her deciding that the children should be jailed for 2 to 10 days for cursing at her. When asked about her actions, she said “Was I in violation? Heck yes. But was I going to allow a child to cuss anyone out? Heck no.” In the 2016 fiscal year alone, Rutherford County imprisoned 986 children for a total of 7,932 days.

Not only did she never face any legal repercussions for her actions, Davenport still runs the juvenile court, making $176,000 per year, and now has plans to retire. Just like Judges Ciavarella and Conahan, she illegally imprisoned thousands of children, a story that has spread across the country, but because she never took kickbacks from any of the facilities involved, the criminal justice system decided that her actions fall within acceptable conduct for an official dealing with children.

A system that unfairly punishes minors, negatively influencing their development and their futures, has no place in a civilized society. There are countless studies on the harmful effects of imprisoning children but elected officials continue to campaign on the belief that the nation’s youth is deteriorating and harsh punishment can put an end to it. It’s a lie, and should make all of us begin to seriously question the role of the criminal justice system in America.

5. The current policy of enabling private prisons has been shown to increase incarceration and recidivism

With all of the news stories showing only the most violent, most terrifying criminals, it is easy to forget the real purpose of the criminal justice system: rehabilitation. We all want the country to be a safer, more equitable place, which is why the current objective of “punishing bad things” is childish. There are individuals who are dangerous and are taken off of the streets for that reason, but they are in the minority. Most of the people incarcerated are not in prison for violent crimes, and most do not serve life sentences.

If incarcerated individuals are going to be reintegrated into society, the focus should be on making sure they have the ability to do that. Which is why it is even more upsetting to learn that the private facilities that we rely on right now serve the exact opposite purpose. I went into more detail about the ethical and practical problems with for-profit prisons in my previous article here, so check that out next if you’re curious.

Some people don’t care about the safety risks associated with these facilities, or the negative impacts that they have on sentencing, but regardless of your personal beliefs, we should at least be able to agree that less effective prisons are a bad thing.

Overall, the current U.S. prison system is one that tramples human lives for the sake of profit, regularly interferes with the growth of children by subjecting them to dangerous and unfair conditions, and makes the country as a whole less safe. It cannot be allowed to continue to operate as it does and we desperately need to fully reconsider our ideas of justice and punishment.

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