A group of current and former inmates is suing the state of Alabama, claiming they were forced to work at fast-food restaurants, meatpacking plants and even city offices for “nothing” while state officials took $450 million in “inmate leases.”
The federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Central District Court, alleges the inmate was forced into a “modern form of slavery.”
“The forced labor scheme that now exists in Alabama’s prison system is a modern reincarnation of the famous ‘convict lease’ system that replaced slavery after the Civil War,” said Janet Herold, legal director of Justice Catalyst Law.
Under the scheme, the class action suit alleges, prisoners are “forced to work, often for little or no money, for the benefit of the many government entities and private businesses that ’employ’ them.
“They live in such constant danger of being killed, stabbed or raped that the federal government has sued Alabama for imposing ‘cruel and unusual punishment,’ and if they refuse to work, the State punishes them even more,” the suit says. “They are caught up in this labor trafficking scheme.”
The plaintiffs named in the suit say they were forced to work for McDonald’s, KFC, Wendy’s and Burger King franchises, as well as local meat processors and Anheuser-Busch distributors.
A group of current and former inmates is suing the state of Alabama over its “convict leasing” program – a form of “modern slavery.” AP
It also named the City of Montgomery, 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 “hired” labor from state prisons, according to the lawsuit.
At these workplaces, the suit claims, inmates are not allowed to refuse work or protest their dangerous working conditions or long hours.
It also claims that if inmates don’t comply, they risk being “placed behind a wall” in one of the “higher-security ultra-violent facilities.”
Meanwhile, the state Department of Corrections takes 40% of the inmate’s gross earnings, claiming it is “to assist in defraying the cost of his incarceration,” the suit says.
Robert Earl Council, an incarcerated activist who founded the Free Alabama Movement, said he was “subjected to severe 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 “unintentional” that people “trapped in labor trafficking schemes” are black, comparing them to “individuals enslaved and forced to participate in sharecropping and ‘suit leasing’ .’ scheme that followed the end of the Civil War.
It notes that while 26.8% of Alabama residents identify as black or African American, double that percentage affects the black incarcerated population.
As of September, the complaint says, 1,374 incarcerated people have enrolled in the program.
Among those named in the suit is Lakiera Walker, who claims she was forced to work long hours without compensation “under threat of discipline” in a series of jobs, including cleaning, stripping floors, providing care for the mentally disabled or other incarcerated people who ill , unloading chemical trucks, working in freezers and at Burger King.
She was paid just $2 a day and had been sexually harassed by supervising officers, she claimed.
When he was seriously ill and unable to work, a supervisor allegedly told him to “get up and go make us 40%.”
Lakiera Walker claims she was forced to work long hours without compensation “under threat of discipline” in a series of jobs.
“This woman needs help. They desperately need a voice,” Walker told Law & Crime about his decision to prosecute.
“I knew I had to do something,” he said. “I want justice for this forced labor.”
Robert Earl Council, an incarcerated activist who founded the Free Alabama Movement — which helped organize a nationwide strike among incarcerated people in 2016 — also said he was “subjected to severe and abusive treatment in retaliation for advocating that incarcerated people refuse to submit to forced labor.”
He allegedly 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 their cookie jar with the Alabama Department of Corrections – you are guilty of slavery,” Council asserted.
“You are a slave master.”
Almireo English claims that some of the more trusted inmates do unpaid work 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 a KFC manager wrote “a letter to the Parole Board specifically recommending him for parole based on his strong work performance.”
Some of the more reliable inmates perform unpaid tasks that keep the prison running so that prison administrators can dedicate their limited staff to other functions, Almireo English claims.
“Why does the slave master, of his own free will, release men on parole who aid and abet them in making their salaried work easier and more cheerful?” English asked.
The plaintiffs argued that Alabama’s practice was illegal under both the Alabama and US constitutions. AP
Plaintiffs now argue that the Alabama Department of Corrections, as well as more than two dozen state officials — including Governor Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
They also claim that Alabama’s practice is illegal under both the Alabama and US constitutions and are asking the court to award them compensatory and punitive damages.
The plaintiffs also include two labor unions, which argue the supply of inmate labor puts downward pressure on wages for all workers and interferes with the union’s ability to organize.
The Alabama Department of Corrections declined to comment on pending litigation.
The Post has also reached out to the offices of Gov. Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall for comment.
But the state has previously insisted that prison release work prepares inmates for life after incarceration.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
