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Heat Exhaustion, Amputated Fingers, Crushed Limbs: The Hidden Cost of American Turkey (sentientmedia.org)

submitted 6 months ago by usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml to c/usa@midwest.social

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[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Don't worry, there's fears it might get worse

As detention numbers creep upward, some advocates are worried that detainees could be compelled to work to fill gaps in the workforce of some of the most dangerous jobs in the country, including on factory farms and in slaughterhouses. “Over the last decade or so, ICE has been contracting with private organizations to run their detention centers, very much like prisons have been doing. Those private companies have been making detainees work for $1 a day,” Amal Bouhabib, senior staff attorney with the legal advocacy organization FarmSTAND, tells Sentient.

To be clear, there is no evidence this is happening right now in ICE detention centers, but advocates are worried this could change.

The meat, dairy, etc. industry already uses prison slave labor in various parts

https://sentientmedia.org/people-in-ice-detention-forced-to-work/

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Why would you even bother working for so little money?

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

From the above article

The program has also been accused of being less than voluntary, as numerous firsthand accounts of being coerced or forced to work against their will have emerged from people detained inside ICE facilities. Allegations against the agency range from officers threatening retaliation if detainees refuse to work, to detainees receiving insufficient amounts of food and having to work to make money to buy additional food at the commissary.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 3 points 6 months ago (3 children)

How the fuck does "the land of the free" use forced labour?

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 months ago

Because the 13th amendment has an explicit exception for prison slave labor baked into it. It's not an accidental addition, and it wasn't unnoticed either (it was very quickly used especially in the South after the 13th amendment was ratified)

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Some states have recently change their state constitutions to prohibit that within the state, but it's still legal federally and in the vast majority of states

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 2 points 6 months ago

"Land of the fee, home of the slave"

[–] JigglySackles@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Well the easy answer is because it's not the land of the free.

The more complicated answer involves explaining how it was only ever free to a select group of people. Suppose that's still true. It's just a narrower group than it used to be.