Why Are For-Profit US Prisons Subjecting Detainees to Forced Labor?

By Azadeh Shahshahani, Guardian UK

18 May 18

Private prisons have for years enriched themselves by exploiting detained immigrant labor. They must be held accountable

n 2017, officials at the Stewart immigration detention center in Georgia placed Shoaib Ahmed, a 24-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh, in solitary confinement for encouraging fellow workers to stop working.

Ahmed, who was paid 50 cents per hour to work within the facility, was upset because his $20 paycheck was delayed. His punishment was solitary confinement for 10 days, where he was subject to deplorable conditions – a cell with no access to other workers, only an hour of out of cell time per day and showers only three times per week. Detailing the impact that severe isolation has had on his mental health, Ahmed said: “I think the segregation will kill me.”

Stewart is operated by the largest prison corporation in the US, CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America), under a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). The corporation’s net income last year was $178m.

Ahmed’s experience mirrors that of a growing number of detained immigrants at facilities across the US who are subjected to forced labor.

In April, we filed a lawsuit on behalf of Shoaib Ahmed and others against CoreCivic, alleging that the prison corporation violates human trafficking laws and employs a deprivation scheme to force immigrants detained at Stewart to work for sub-minimum wages, and then threatens to punish them for refusing to work through solitary confinement or loss of access to necessities. A lawsuit against Geo Group, another prison corporation, is moving forward for using similar practices at the Aurora Detention Center in Colorado, violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

Stewart relies on the labor of detained immigrants to keep the cooking and cleaning and other basic operations going. How convenient and profitable for the largest and wealthiest prison corporation to exploit detained immigrant labor rather than hire regularly waged employees.

CoreCivic’s abuse and exploitation of detained immigrants’ labor as part of its profit-making schemes constitute a contemporary form of slavery as we detailed in a submission to the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (which the US has ratified) states, “slavery … in all [its] forms shall be prohibited,” and that no one, including detained immigrants, “shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labor”.

Stewart employs a deprivation system in which officials provide immigrants with inadequate food and basic living supplies and require immigrants to purchase them at exorbitant costs at the commissary. While officials portray the labor program as “voluntary” in light of the 13th amendment of the US constitution, detained immigrants are often penalized for refusing to work. Officials at Stewart take advantage of immigrants for cheap labor and overuse solitary confinement to punish immigrants, oftentimes for the mere act of speaking up and demanding their rights, as happened to Shoaib Ahmed.

Adding to the deprivation system, Stewart officials enforce unreasonably strict eating schedules and provide immigrants with inadequate food portions, forcing many immigrants to purchase additional food from overpriced commissaries, as detailed in a report released last year. Almost all immigrants detained at Stewart say they are given insufficient food. As one detained immigrant from Mexico stated: “I believe the reason why the facility gives the detainees so little food is so we will have to buy food from the commissary. Everything in the commissary is expensive. I spend $80 a week, $320 a month, in the commissary.”

None of this bothered a group of 18 Republican lawmakers including three from Georgia who sent a letter to Jeff Sessions, Ice, and the Department of Labor asking them to help the private prison company Geo Group defend itself against the lawsuits. They actually alleged that the labor programs are good for the detained individuals as they “reduce the negative impact of confinement through decreased idleness, improved morale, and [lead to] fewer disciplinary incidents”.

Improved morale? Shoaib Ahmed, who has since been deported and still suffers from psychological trauma and distress, would beg to differ.

These legislators’ support for the prison corporations perhaps should not come as a surprise. CoreCivic gave $295,642 in federal political contributions during the 2016 election cycle. Ninety-six percent of that money went to Republicans, including Lamar Smith of Texas, one of the signatories of the letter.

Private prison companies contributed $1.6m during the 2016 federal election cycle.

Immigrants who choose to work at the detention facilities should be paid a living wage. It goes without saying that they should not be pressured into working. Prison corporations that have for years enriched themselves by exploiting detained immigrant labor should be held accountable. So should the politicians who support this inhumane and illegal scheme.

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I Live in Gaza. I Want You to Know Why We're Protesting.

By Intimaa Alsdudi, ThinkProgress

18 May 18

The international media keeps warping our demands for their own purposes.

aheyya, 70 years old and tired after a long walk from Saladin Road to the “no-go” zone, looked among the huge crowd of protesters for a place to rest as she carried a Palestinian flag and her embroidered bag over her shoulder.

When I approached Zaheyya on Monday and asked if I could interview her to find out why she is participating in the Great Return March in spite of her age and sickness, she replied, “Shame on you, for asking me this question! I will come every day until U.N. Resolution 194 is implemented.”

The resolution Zaheyya recalled was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1948, and it called for the return of all Palestinian refugees to their lands. It was never adopted by the U.N. Security Council, and so it was never enforced. But Palestinians have not forgotten.

“I am a refugee from Huliqat village that was ethnically cleansed in 1948 by the hands of the Haganah [the Zionist paramilitary organization] and I have the right to go back,” said Zaheyya. “This is our day to show Israel that the old will die, but the young will never forget… Yes, I will join my people and shout with all my strength, move on people, go back to your homeland, the land is waiting for you.”

It was inspiring, but then Zaheyya started shouting something else. “Tear gas, gas, gas! Run people, run!”

Tear gas cans began rolling between us and the crowds. Everyone ran from the area, while Israeli snipers on top of the hills and watchtowers started shooting randomly at the people protesting.  At one point, I lost sight of my mom. I could not see her, because there was dark smoke everywhere. Do you know what that feels like? To not know if your mother is okay as snipers are shooting at you and everyone around you?

It took me half an hour to find her again — when the air cleared out from the tear gas bombs. After we did, my mom, as always, hugged me. “Calm down. I am okay,” she said. We started laughing and cursing the snipers.

Monday was hard, and it was heartbreaking. After a long day, I found out that my brother Mustafa, who is 29 years old, was shot. He was lucky, the bullet that penetrated his leg was not explosive.

At least 62 people were killed that day, and nearly 3,200 wounded, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza. Those injured included journalists, medics, and dozens of women.

Since then, all of the victims have been painted in the international media as martyrs for Hamas. All the protesters – me, my family, Zaheyya, thousands of others like us – have had our demands warped and our voices silenced by others for political purposes.

So let me be clear with you. Gaza is the biggest open-air prison on earth. Nearly two million people are denied the basic freedom of movement. Ninety-seven percent of the water here is undrinkable. The unemployment rate is 44 percent.

We have said over and over again that the right of return is the solution to all of our miserable problems. That is why we protested on Monday. That is why we have been protesting since March 30. Two-thirds of Palestinians in Gaza are refugees from lands stolen by Israel in 1948.

The Great Return March is the first time in my life that I have seen a huge number of people uniting and calling for right of return. It is the decision of ordinary Palestinians in Gaza, and it is the call for everyone who is concerned about humanity. There is only one flag that has been rising up in the marches, carried by kids, the elderly, journalists, nurses, doctors, and teachers. It is Palestine’s.

Issam, a 15 year-old boy from Khan-Younis, was injured with a tear gas canister that was dropped on his head on Monday. He rejoined the march the next day, while his head was still bandaged.

Asked whether he is already healed or still in pain he replied, “I am in pain, but I cannot leave my friends alone today, and we will fly our kites. We spent last night preparing it. We wrote on it: ‘Palestine, we are coming back.’” These are the kites that children fly near the buffer zone, the ones that have been deemed strategic threats by Israel and used as excuses to shoot children.

Last week, my 11-year-old brother Mohammed decided to take his bird to set him free at the buffer zone. He wanted his bird to cross the fence, even when he couldn’t.