Current and former inmates who served time in Alabama are suing the state over its “convict lease” program where they claim they earned “next to nothing,” likening it to “picking cotton.”
Prisoners claimed in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that Alabama has made $450 million from forced labor that involved placing inmates at places like Burger King and McDonald's. They called it a “modern form of slavery.”
“He says they were 'trapped in a 'convict lease' system in which incarcerated people are forced to work, often for little or no money,' while the state keeps the benefits of their labor,” he said. daily mail reported
“The plaintiffs said are regularly forced to work at McDonald's, KFC, Wendy's and Burger King franchises, Anheuser-Busch distributors and meat processors,” the news outlet added.
(Video credit: NBC 15)
The lawsuit claims that inmates “live in constant danger of being killed, 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 will punish. even more so. They're caught in this labor-trafficking scheme.”
State agencies are being named in the lawsuit, including the Alabama Department of Corrections. Also called Montgomery City, Troy City, and Jefferson County. The lawsuit includes more than two dozen state officials, including Gov. Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall. They are accused of violating the Law for the Protection of Victims of Trafficking.
The lawsuit goes on to charge that since 2018, “575 private employers and more than 100 public employers have 'leased' labor to Alabama prisons,” according to the Daily Mail.
“It says inmates work against their will in 'unsafe working conditions' and ADOC takes 40 percent of the gross revenue claiming it is 'to help defray the cost of their incarceration,'” noted the medium
According to the complaint, 1,374 incarcerated people were enrolled in the work program as of September 2023.
NEW: A group of plaintiffs has filed a lawsuit against the state of Alabama over its inmate leasing program. They claim that state and private employers exploit black prisoners for $450 million worth of labor each year, while denying those eligible parole: https://t.co/ZDpJ6ib1Or
— Gabriel Tynes (@gabetynes) December 12, 2023
“The forced labor scheme that currently exists in Alabama's prison system is the modern reincarnation of the notorious 'convict lease' system that replaced slavery after the Civil War,” said Janet Herold, legal director of Justice Catalyst Law, according to the New York Post.
Lakiera Walker is one of the plaintiffs. She was in prison from 2007 to 2023 and says she was forced to work long hours without pay “under threat of discipline”.
Duties included jobs such as caring for the mentally disabled or other incarcerated patients, cleaning floors, unloading chemical trucks, working inside freezers and working for Burger King. Walker claims she was paid $2 a day and was also sexually harassed by a supervising officer.
She also says that when she was so sick unable to work, a supervisor told him to “get up and go do our 40 percent.”
“These women need help. They really need a voice. I knew I had to do something. I want justice for this forced labor,” Walker said Law and crime in an interview
According to the lawsuit, if the inmates don't do what they're told, they could be “put behind the wall” in one of the “maximum security ultra-violent facilities.”
Alabama has a prison labor system where the state rents out hundreds of millions of inmates to companies like McDonald's, KFC, Burger King, Wendy's and more.
A federal class-action lawsuit has now been filed to dismantle the scheme and compensate those who have been exploited.
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) December 12, 2023
“The plaintiffs argued that Alabama's practices are illegal under both the Alabama and United States Constitutions and asked the court to award compensatory and punitive damages,” the Daily Mail wrote.
Robert Earl Council, who is one of the plaintiffs, is a jailed activist. He co-founded the Free Alabama Movement which helped organize a 2016 national strike among prisoners.
He claims that he has been “subject to severe and abusive treatment in retaliation for advocating that imprisoned people refuse to submit to hard labor,” according to Law&Crime.
“Arthur Charles Promey Jr. has been incarcerated for 16 years; he was denied parole in 2022, and ADOC allegedly told his family it was because 'he was fired from KFC in 2019,'” he wrote the Daily Mail. “This was despite his manager at KFC writing 'a letter to the Parole Board specifically recommending him for parole in light of his strong work performance.'”
“The full list of plaintiffs is: Robert Earl Council, Lee Edward Moore Jr., Lakiera Walker, Jerame Apprentice Cole, Frederick Denard McDole, Michael Campbell, Arthur Charles Promey Jr., Lanair Pritchett, Alimireo English and Toni Cartwright.” point of sale indicated.
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) December 12, 2023
The plaintiffs also include two unions, which argue that the inmate labor supply is suppressing wages for all workers and interfering with their ability to organize.
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you're sick of letting radical tech execs, bogus fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals, and the lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news, consider donating to BPR to help us fight back them. Now is the time. The truth has never been more critical!
Success! Thanks for donating. Please share BPR content to help fight lies.
We have zero tolerance for comments that contain violence, racism, profanity, profanity, doxing, or rude behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it, click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for engaging with us in a fruitful conversation.
English 
Español de Venezuela