Thread by @jbwashing

Yesterday I broke the story, for @theintercept, about Bloomberg exploiting prison labor to make campaign calls.
theintercept.com/2019/12/24/mik…
Today I'm offering a little more context on the use of prison labor.

@theintercept The briefest of histories: due to the “exception clause” in the 13th amendment, people convicted of crimes can still be subject to “involuntary servitude,” basically “prison slavery.”

A good background piece: psmag.com/social-justice…

@theintercept Today, some states force inmates to work under threat of punishment, in sometimes grueling conditions, and can pay them nothing.

Here's a 2018 photo of white guard on horseback watching over a group of black men forced to work for basically zero pay.
theatlantic.com/business/archi…

@theintercept The average wage for prison work has actually gone down since 2001, and, as Prison Policy Initiative notes, “Most prison jobs teach incarcerated people very few skills relevant to the labor market”
prisonpolicy.org/blog/2017/04/1…

@theintercept Relatively, giving people jobs in prison is better than keeping them locked in cells, but the set-up is fundamentally coercive, and basic labor rights are often out the window.
See @DavidCFathi on inmates fighting California wildfires for further nuance.
aclu.org/blog/prisoners…

@theintercept @DavidCFathi Though neither the Bloomberg campaign nor ProCom would tell me the wages the inmates making calls were making, CBS confirmed yesterday that though ProCom is paying OK DOC $7.25/hr for the work, the state is only paying the inmates $1.45/hr
cbsnews.com/news/mike-bloo…

@theintercept @DavidCFathi I was told that these call center jobs are coveted, and relatively better and higher paid than other OK prison jobs, but, let's go back to Bloomberg and the big picture.

These women cannot vote. In Oklahoma they are disenfranchised for the duration of their sentence.

@theintercept @DavidCFathi Nationwide, 6.1 million Americans are disenfranchised b/c of a felony conviction, and 1/13 African Americans have lost their voting rights. (Disenfranchisement is 1/56 for non-black voters.)
sentencingproject.org/issues/felony-…

@theintercept @DavidCFathi So, the women are making calls for a guy they are not allowed to vote for. Would they vote for Bloomberg? Though he's apologized for it, as his tenure as mayor he pushed stop-and-frisk to unprecedented levels, overwhelmingly targeting black and Latino residents.

@theintercept @DavidCFathi That racial disparity is reflected not only in disenfranchisement rates, but, as we all know, also in the prison population.
prisonpolicy.org/graphs/raceinc…

@theintercept @DavidCFathi Incarcerated people are protesting these conditions, and in the past years, we've witnessed prison labor organizing, culminating in 2016 with the nationwide prison strikes, which I covered for @thenation: thenation.com/article/this-w…

@theintercept @DavidCFathi @thenation There’s also a growing abolition movement, borne out of a long legacy of resistance, and has been essential in shutting down or blocking construction of new prisons, as well as advocating for prisoner rights.
I wrote about the movement here: thenation.com/article/what-i…

@theintercept @DavidCFathi @thenation Some of the people doing the best work on this, and are well worth a follow: @prisonculture @iheartpaps @NicoleFleetwoo2 @schwartzapfel @avitale @laurenk_gill
And tying it to immigration detention: @crimmigration
@aurabogado