A group of current and former inmates are suing the state of Alabama, alleging they were forced to work in fast-food restaurants, meatpacking plants and even municipal offices for “almost nothing,” while state officials received $450 million. of his “convict lease.”
The federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Middle District Court, claims the prisoners were forced into “a modern form of slavery.”
“The forced labor scheme that currently exists in the Alabama prison system is the modern reincarnation of the notorious ‘convict leasing’ system that replaced slavery after the Civil War,” said Janet Herold, legal director at Justice Catalyst Law.
According to the class action lawsuit, under this plan, prisoners “are forced to work, often for little or no money, for the benefit of the numerous government entities and private companies that ’employ’ them.
“They live in constant danger of being murdered, stabbed or raped that is so profound that the federal government has sued Alabama for inflicting ‘cruel and unusual punishment,’ and if they refuse to work, the state punishes them even more,” he said. . says the suit. “They are trapped in this labor trafficking scheme.”
The plaintiffs named in the lawsuit said they were forced to work for McDonald’s, KFC, Wendy’s and Burger King franchisees, as well as meat processors and even local Anheuser-Busch distributors.
A group of current and former inmates are suing the state of Alabama over its “convict leasing” program, a form of “modern slavery.” AP
It also names the city of Montgomery, the city of Troy and Jefferson County as agencies that have benefited from inmate labor.
In fact, since 2018, 575 private employers and more than 100 public employers have “leased” labor from state prisons, according to the lawsuit.
In these jobs, the lawsuit claims, inmates are not allowed to refuse to work or protest their dangerous working conditions or long hours.
It also alleges that if prisoners do not comply, they risk being “put behind the wall” in one of the “higher security ultraviolent facilities.”
Meanwhile, the State Department of Corrections takes 40% of an inmate’s gross earnings, claiming it is “to help defray the cost of his incarceration,” the lawsuit says.
Robert Earl Council, an incarcerated activist who co-founded the Free Alabama Movement, says he was “subjected to harsh and abusive treatment in retaliation for advocating that incarcerated people refuse to submit to forced labor.”
The 129-page complaint goes even further, arguing that “it is no coincidence” that the people “caught in a labor trafficking scheme” are black, comparing them to “individuals who were enslaved and forced to participate in sharecropping.” and the leasing of convicts.” ‘schemes that followed the end of the Civil War.”
It points out that while 26.8% of Alabama’s population identifies as black or African American, twice that percentage compromises the incarcerated black population.
As of September, the complaint says, 1,374 incarcerated people were enrolled in the program.
Among those named in the lawsuit is Lakiera Walker, who alleges she was forced to perform long hours of unpaid work “under threat of discipline” in a range of jobs, including housework, stripping floors, caring for people with disabilities mental or other imprisoned persons. , unloading chemical trucks, working inside freezers and at Burger King.
She was paid only $2 a day and was subjected to sexual harassment by supervising officers, she claims.
When she was seriously ill and unable to work, a supervisor allegedly told her to “get up and go make us our 40%.”
Lakiera Walker alleges she was forced to perform long hours of unpaid work “under threat of discipline” in a series of jobs.
“These women need help. They really need a voice,” Walker told Law & Crime of her decision to sue.
“I knew I had to do something,” he said. “I want justice for this forced labor.”
Robert Earl Council, an incarcerated activist who co-founded the Free Alabama Movement, which helped organize a national strike among incarcerated people in 2016, also says he was “subjected to harsh and abusive treatment in retaliation for advocating that incarcerated people refuse to submit to forced labor.”
He reportedly had to spend more than eight years in solitary confinement.
“Alabama seems to be addicted to cheap labor,” he told Law & Crime.
“Every corporation, every fast food company, anyone who participates and has their hand in the cookie jar with the Alabama Department of Corrections, is guilty of slavery,” the Council stated.
“You are a slave master.”
Almireo English said some of the most trusted prisoners perform unpaid tasks to keep the prison running.
A third plaintiff, Arthur Charles Promey Jr., even claims he was denied parole in 2022, when the Department of Corrections allegedly told his family it was because “he was fired from KFC in 2019,” even though the manager of KFC wrote “a letter to the Parole Board specifically recommended his parole in light of his excellent job performance.”
Some of the most trusted prisoners perform unpaid tasks that keep the prison running so that prison administrators can devote their limited staff to other duties, Almireo English said.
“Why would the slave master, of his own free will, release on parole men who help and assist him in making his paid work easier and carefree?” The Englishman asked.
The plaintiffs argue that Alabama’s practices are illegal under the Alabama and United States constitutions. AP
The plaintiffs now argue that the Alabama Department of Corrections, as well as more than two dozen state officials, including Gov. Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall, are violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
They also claim that Alabama’s practices are illegal under the Alabama and U.S. constitutions and are asking a court to award them compensatory and punitive damages.
The plaintiffs also include two unions, which argue that the supply of inmate labor puts downward pressure on the wages of all workers and interferes with a union’s ability to organize.
The Alabama Department of Corrections declined to comment on pending litigation.
The Post also reached out to the offices of Gov. Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall for comment.
But the state has previously maintained that work release jobs in prisons prepare inmates for life after incarceration.
With post cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn