Essay - This Essay Addresses Corporations' Access to Prison Labor. Questions: How...

This essay addresses corporations' access to prison labor. Questions: How, why and whom do we imprison? How is money best spent? Five sources. APA.

Corporations and Prison Labor

Most people's familiarity of prison ***** comes from the media, particularly from movies. Chain gangs working on railroads or highways can be seen in movies such as 'Cool Hand Luke' and 'O' Brother Where Art Thou.' Another popular movie, 'The Shawshank Redemption' depicted the use ***** convict labor for o*****r types of contract labor ***** as ro***** tarr*****g. Manufacturing automobile state license plates is another use of pr*****on labor familiar to most of the general public. But, how *****es the general public feel about ***** use of prison labor, and moreover, how do laborers in the private sector feel about companies using ***** labor instead of *****m? Is the use of prison ***** good for the economy? Is it good for the *****ers, for ***** prisons? And just how good is it ***** the corporations?

***** ***** of prison labor in the United States is as old ***** the country itself. Prisons earned ***** of their operating cost by leasing prison ***** to the businesses in the private sector, mak*****g profits as much a concern *****s prisoners (Du Pont 72). Since then, the use of prison labor has steadily dropped, ***** forty-four percent in the 1930's to eleven percent by the 1990's. One reason for the decl*****e is ***** resentment from the labor movement threatened by competition (Du Pont *****). However, in ***** last few years, it ***** resurfaced as a major source of labor for many ***** corporations. Supporters claim it is ***** ***** business ***** gives prisoners training in skills that will afford them viable employment when they are rele*****ed from prison. However, many see it as slave labor and unfair compet*****ion in the labor market. Pac Serives, a packaging firm, claims its affiliate, Exmark, only *****s prison labor for ***** work overflow. A few of the companies that use ***** labor through Exmark are Micros*****t, JanSport, Starbucks, US West, ***** Costco (Microsoft pg). Many see the use of prison labor as a dangerous trend.

The United States *****s more people than any other ***** in the world. With roughly two million people *****h*****d bars, this number is "more than three times the number of pr*****oners in 1980" (Schwartz *****). Cali*****nia has built twenty-one new ***** in the last twenty years and have five under construction, ***** plans for an***** ten. Moreover, one in ten "adult Georgi*****s can expect to spend time in prison, twice ***** national average...***** the federal ***** system added more inmates than Georgia, despite a declining crime rate" (Cook *****1). Since 1970, Georgia's population ***** increased seventy-eight percent, its inmate population has increased a staggering 417 ***** (Cook A1).

***** prison industrial complex is a booming ***** for "*****, guarding, administration, health, education and food service...One of the fastest-growing sectors of ***** prison ***** complex is private corrections companies" (Schwartz pg). Many corporations have discovered that