A deadly crash involving a prison transport van in Alabama has sparked questions about the state's long history of contracting out prison labor to private companies. The crash, which killed two inmates, involved a prisoner with a history of substance abuse and escape attempts. Critics say the Alabama Department of Corrections places profits over prisoner safety by sending inmates like Jake Jones, who was driving the van, to work for private companies.
No state has a longer, more profit-driven history of contracting prisoners out to private companies than Alabama
“They knew he had a propensity to drink,” said Shawn Wasden, who survived the crash. “And they put him behind the wheel of a van anyway.” While those working at private companies can at least earn a little money, they face possible punishment if they refuse, from being denied family visits to being sent to higher-security prisons, which are so dangerous that the federal government filed a lawsuit four years ago that remains pending, calling the treatment of prisoners unconstitutional.
Many prisoners work 40 hours a week outside their facilities and then get weekend passes, allowing them to go home without any supervision or electronic monitoring. So when prisoners are then told they’re too dangerous to be permanently released, England said, it looks like “another way to create a cheap labor force that is easily exploited and abused.”
“For a lot of these jobs, the attitude is the same … if you don’t meet our expectations, we’ll just call for somebody else,” Ptomey said while on a 48-hour home pass at his mother’s house. “I’m grateful to come out and work, but I ain’t come in here to be a slave.” Alabama’s lockups are chronically understaffed, and it’s not unusual for prisoners to work outside their facilities without any correctional oversight. And in some cases, there is no supervision of any kind, which has led to escapes, often referred to as “walkaways.”
McDonald’s said in a statement it does not permit the use of prison labor within its supply chain or at its corporate-owned restaurants and is “committed to promoting ethical employment practices.” The fast food giant added that while franchisees operate independently, they are expected to respect human rights and are encouraged to develop similar policies.
Few prisoner advocates believe outside jobs should be abolished. In Alabama, for instance, those shifts can offer a reprieve from the excessive violence inside the state’s institutions. Last year, and in the first six months of 2024, an Alabama inmate died behind bars nearly every day, a rate five times the national average.
Tyrone Heard, one of the passengers dropped off before the crash, said Jones had been drinking and that he believed staff knew it. Before heading out, he said he overheard two officers discussing whether they should find another driver. Betts, the corrections department spokeswoman, said Jones met all the criteria to be an inmate driver: Though he failed drug and alcohol tests in 2018 and 2022 — and another about a month after the accident — he passed his screening test two days before the deadly crash.
They still ride past the crash site, marked by a simple cross — with Willie Crayton’s hat resting on top., which banned slavery and involuntary servitude – except for those convicted of a crime. That language also was added to the constitutions of many states, though eight of them have removed the so-called punishment clause in recent years after taking the issue to voters.
Alabama shifted its strategy when industries began to modernize and mechanize, said Douglas Blackmon, whose book “Slavery by Another Name” chronicles the state’s dark past of convict leasing. The system was adopted over the objections of Oscar Adams, the state’s first Black Supreme Court justice, who noted that the vast majority of those accepted would not get “good time” because prisoners sentenced to more than 10 years — later pushed to 15 — were ineligible. At the time, they represented the bulk of the prison population.
But for the hundreds of private companies that hire them, the benefits are robust. Businesses pay at least minimum wage, but can earn up to $2,400 in tax credits for some inmates hired. Amid crushing staff shortages, they can rely on a steady, pliable workforce available to take extra shifts, fill in at the last minute when civilian workers call in sick and also work holidays. And if an incarcerated worker is injured or even killed on the job, the company may not be liable.
A decade ago, nearly half the prisoners coming up for parole were released, with no clear racial disparity, it noted. But that changed several years ago when the board began disregarding its own guidelines and denying early releases to those who scored high enough to qualify, based on criteria like their crimes, perceived risk to society and behavior behind bars.
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