Slavery in America TODAY

Who is to punish the people who raped and killed all of the black men and women that was kidnapped and brought to this country to labor. Everything blacks do and feel is a direct result of all the affliction and oppression.

A population of a prison would reflect the population of the area it is responsible for. The racial aspect is incidental.

Are they growing any of their own food or is this just manual labor to expended energy? Or do they use the cotton to sell and get paid, as with other work programs?

What is its purpose and is it effective?
If it isn't... then they should make some changes.

I wrote this before I read anything anyone wrote. When I read the post about what they are doing and the history, I think calling it slavery is wrong.

The racial percentages found in our prisons simply don't add up. Our criminal justice system only reinforces the saying that one is entitled to the best legal defense he can BUY.

I think it's good to have work while in prison, and I don't object to that, but what i do object to is FOR PROFIT prison systems. If the inmates are going to work and not realize their own profits, and truthfully, they earn pennies working while incarcerated, then we need to have some accountability for where the profit is going.

More often than not, these FOR PROFIT prisons are selling everything they can to the prisoners and their families at inflated costs. Reading materials have to be purchased from the prison, extra clothing has to be purchased from the prison, medications have to be purchased from the prison. Sending Christmas gifts is a huge industry whereby the prisoner's families are sold food packages at ridiculous prices that they can buy for their incarcerated family member. Who is realizing the profit on these commodities?

FOR PROFIT prisons are notorious for sending inmates to local hospitals and then never paying the bill (it's put on the inmate's tab, in other words, when/if the prisoner gets out, it must be paid). Many of the local hospitals serving FOR PROFIT prisons are in financial trouble because of this practice. There are men in prison who are working for pennies, while the government is picking up the slack to support their families because the FOR PROFIT prison system picks up the surplus on their labor...

I would like some better accountability from this FOR PROFIT prison system, and not ironically, there are huge corporations behind all of this...just one more way they have figured out how to defraud the public through privatization.

there is a prison in Texas that is totally self sufficient. They have a working farm, with dairy and beef cattle, and food crops. The persons incarcerated their do all or most of the work. They are also taught how to make their own clothes...they are being REHABILITATED- taught work skill- you know a trade...it is a maximum security prison...that means these men/women are lifers- they are paying their "debt to society", which is what prison is for...there is no conspiracy, "the man" hasn't put them in there b/c they had an ounce of weed on them or a garden of "medicinal marijuana" ( which would be 2-3 plants max, if it is "truly" medicinal- (sorry but a tractor trailer full of smoke isn't what I would term medicinal- if you believe that then you need to take your mouth off the hookah- if you want to legalize something you need to be realistic- think before you speak please...

Wow...would this be an issue if they were making license plates? I mean come on. They are people in a maximum security prison. Not everyday people getting paid crap for extreme amounts of labor. And no, we're not talking about Mexicans. It's black people. Well, mostly, but it wouldn't make a good story if we said blacks, whites, etc. (because we all know that the only races that matter are blacks and whites. Forget the vast amount of other races that live in America and have a harder time getting represented). And of course they are paid little...they're PRISON workers here. There is a reason they are in prison. Not jail. Prison. And how would people in America feel if prison workers were making more then they were. Prison is not something to enjoy. It is a punishment for a crime. It's suppose to give people a reason not to want to do what they did (or anything else like it) that would cause them to be back there.

This is your Drug War at work. Ever hear of cruel and unusual punishment?

Time for a crackdown on the penetentiary system...

Here are a few questions:

What would happen if people in prison were treated decently... were paid a decent wage for their work, and could use the money the earn to pay for textbooks college education, etc. etc. (or buy more twinkies)?

What if it went into a checking account with limited use around the prison.... what if we used prison to teach people work ethic? What if?

What if there were equal treatment in courtrooms for black men vs. white men for the same crimes?

This is sad, true and legal.

You do know there are real slaves in america that haven't committed any crime bar maybe illegal immigration.
They work for pennies, get stiffed, played with, or how about all those trafficked in prostitution?

It is an insult to those people, the true modern day slave (of which there are hundreds of thousands world wide) to compare them to murderers.

Edit: I don't want to vote this story down because I think it, is an important discussion and we haven't had 30 stories of it's type here in the last few day (some subjects are very popular here). But i do completely disagree with it.

there needs to be a way to disagree/rubbish a story without burying it. (in a simple vote sense if you know what i mean)

i wish some prisoners would pick up some litter on the roads where i live too

I am sorry, but I don't see the problem here. Let me start by saying that I am black. Sorry, but this is not slavery. They are prisoners so basically they lost their rights. I hate when these things are made into racial issues, but many of you make it seem like these men are innocent and that there is a big conspiracy to round these guys up. They committed these crimes, they are lucky they are making money (even pennies)

this isn't slavery. this is criminals serving time and making money voluntarily. if you want to talk about how messed up the justice system or public education is that put them there then i'm all ears but this isn't slavery. at. all.

Shocker! Who thought that prison would suck, the white man would be running the place and money would be a motive? Never saw that coming, not in the US.

Wake up!

I hope you can identify the definitional difference between slave and incarcerated criminal.

Crime and the industries that result from it represent a huge portion of our economy and employ a staggering number of people. Somebody has got to pay for it. Or this is another service the Net Tax-Payers are supposed to altruistically offer to the Net Tax-Receiver?

"Thank you for knocking over my liquor store. Please take a portion of my profits to feed and house your sorry self for the next 5-7. Enjoy your stay. If you need anything, just call."

Simple economics would look at this as a service the government is providing and there is no shortage of willing consumers. The answer is not to make prison more appealing. The answer is to eliminate it as an appealing choice for the people falling over themselves to get in to prison. Trust me, there are boys in our cities who know that their best chance of getting to know dad, is to spend time behind bars with him. Besides, it builds your rep on the street.

But eliminating that choice would require cooperation, understanding, self reliance, public involvement and all varieties of several other things that this self indulgent and myopic culture is alarmingly sort on right now. Instead, we will continue to offer a portion of our profits, incomes and expenditures to give criminals a free ride and the right to sue the entity charged with their incarceration for not offering crunchy peanut butter in the cafeteria. And we will do our best to make them comfortable because we are more concerned with cooking balanced meals for our pets, prisoner rights, making sure cows are safe, loved and respected for the contributions they make to society and whether or not we will ever elect a president who will openly admit to the public that he finds sexual gratification with men than we are in helping each other. Welcome to reality.

If you liked Angola you might want to catch Honeydripper
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4299451/Honeydripper_%5B2007%5DDVDRip%5BXvid_AC3...

Getting someone to pay for their own incarceration seems to pretty common throughout the south, reminiscent of the legal fees levied against women accused of witch craft.

They're not slaves, they are criminals doing time in a more productive way than usual. Big difference. Good for them.

Looks like it would not only build one hell of a work ethic, but become a deterrent for being too lazy to get a job if/when they get out.

This story is slanted. It's only a FREE society if you don't harm other people, so therefore they are prisoners, not "slaves".

If you use the freedom granted to you to take advantage of others and hurt their experience of freedom, what do you think should happen to you?

Why do other poor people not become criminals? If you're poor but you get a job and work for a living like the rest of us "slaves", then how/why would you end up there?

Surely being a law abiding citizen doesn't have anything to do with race despite the fact that this article hinted at it?

On the other hand, we are all slaves to money.

Ok seriously, this isnt rascist. ITs called prison. Grow up.

I know that the justice system in a lot of places is corrupt and just flat out un-just but let's not start singing "this is the story of the hurricane" just yet there is a gigantic crime rate right now especially in Louisiana do to poor living conditions and of course a bad economy, but I'm so sick of hearing "I'm just a product of my environment... der der der..." put down the crack and pick up a pick up a F'n book. Go to school, stop robbing my grandma in the street, get a job.

You can earn money in prison? Sweet!

what if they were working indoors ? field work automatically means slavery huh ?

I am from California, if you want to call making people in a maximum security slavery just because "MOST" of the people that occupy that prison are black then i guess you could call all of the mexican americans that work for 15 hours a day picking stawberrys and grapes and what not slavery also. I think that slavery was a horrible thing and i think i have to agree with rightbrain, we are beliitting it by making this comparisson. Slavery does exist today, but this is not it.

thousands of maximum security prisoners performing hours of manual labor in sweltering hot fields doesn't seem all that unreasonable, in my opinion; however, it's a whole different story if they are being abused, tortured, and/or verbally assaulted. just because a person has been incarcerated doesn't mean he or she deserves to be treated inhumanely.

If it's voluntary work (optional being the key) then whats the problem? Yeah it's messed up but, they know the deal going into it.

I think we're belittling real slavery as it exists today. Let's stop talking about prison labor camps, and start talking about forced prostitution, sex slavery rings etc.
Oooh, if I wasn't at work, I would have a link up here so fast!!

Whether or not they're prisoners, they still should be treated LIKE prisoners; just locked up, not picking in the old days.....If they aren't {prisoners}, THEN sometihng shall be done about it.....

I am aware of how awful this situation is and There are so many angles to attack this discussion from, but what it really boils down to is that, although flawed and a bit outdated, this is the judicial system and these are prisoners who were convicted of crimes. They are serving their time.
On the flip side, they are human beings and deserve to be treated with dignity.
and on the flip side of that, they are rapists, and murderers and deserve everything they get.
And we all know what's on the flip side of that... wrongful convictions, yada yada yada.
-See, lots of different angles. Its a complicated issue.
I'm sure the tax-payers would love to see these men payed minimum wage, but realistically, probably won't happen.

they are prisoners, so it's not the same as them being slaves. At least they can earn money, good merit, and get out of the box. The fact that there are a lot of black men in there is caused by many complex factors.

I do not believe it is fair to make a generalized statement that these prisoners are not slaves.....there is a percentage of them that are not guilty of what they are charged with.....the prison systems of America and around the world are corrupt...it has always been this way and will continue.....the prison systems also have a percentage that are more than guilty......they have gone over the line of living in a civilized community...usually more than once......I do not have a problem with them being slaves.....I believe they have given up their right to ride the rides at this marvelous carnival.....but if you are innocent...hoeing cotton in a field anywhere....being beaten and sexually attacked.....seems like you might just be a slave......Golden Ruler......Johnnie Hargrave....

Ok, yes they are criminals, but this is of bad taste. They should find another job for them. Slavery wasn't abolished so long ago for it to wipe from the minds of those whose family members suffered from it I don't think.

Google Angola LA and read the history. It is quite interesting. The labor must be very difficult, but it seems better than languishing in a cell 23 hours a day. They raise most of the food eaten in the prison and also provide food for other prisons in Louisiana. Members of my church in the U.S. make monthly trips there trying to bring some degree of hope to these men. Most of whom do not deny their crimes.

They are prisoners being punished, its not slavery and to be honest it is an insult to the slaves that toiled the fields to even make the comparison.

Look, a problematic and in many cases, flawed prosecution system aside; these are prisoners, in a prison. They're serving hard time in a forced labor camp for their crimes against a society that deemed their threat worthy of maximum security.
Don't make this a race issue beyond the dynamics of an uneducated economic underclass. They have all races in Angola.
These individuals made their life decisions. I guarantee that if anyone who was closely tied to, or a direct victim of violent crime, has little pity for convicts being forced to pick cotton in the blazing sun, all day, every day...

You've GOT to be shitting me...

Slavery has always been a way to have the cheapest labor available....greed based....prisons are big business.....most of the prisoners are in on non-violent crimes......largely drug related....they are not being exposed to anything that will help them in their life....only take them the wrong way...violent criminals must be dealt with....non-violent ones should be given paying jobs...let them make restitution to anyone they owe....and go on with their life.....nothing has changed over the centuries....Spaniards captured Native people...that worshipped the Sun....shackled them....raped them....made them construct great churches to their God......their Son......if you are not a slave to something.....then you are one of the luckiest people in the world....and among a tiny percentage....if you have a piece of plastic in your pocket....pay taxes on land you think you own....or carry your own little cell....phone with you...you are a slave......Golden Ruler....Johnnie Hargrave.....

Angola will always be very disturbing.