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NPR visits a prison goat farm that was the subject of an activist's ire back in 2015:
Whole Foods loved [Jim Schott's] cheese. His company [Haystack Mountain] grew. It also changed. Ten years ago, Haystack Mountain started buying milk from a farm in a prison. Schott doesn't recall telling Whole Foods or his other customers about that change in the Haystack Mountain story. In any case, Schott felt that it was a good thing — "a model of good prison management."
Then, in 2015, a prison reform activist named Michael Allen sent a letter to John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods. Allen demanded that Whole Foods stop selling Haystack Mountain's cheese because it was made, in part, using the labor of prisoners earning pennies per hour. The way Allen sees it, Haystack was "taking advantage of helpless, powerless individuals. They're fair game for corporations to make money off of. And I just told [Mackey] that we wanted him to get out of that business."
Many things besides cheese are made in prisons. Across the country, tens of thousands of inmates work for businesses that have set up operations inside prison walls. They make flags and furniture. Most of the time, they attract little attention. People may feel differently about something they eat, though, especially a boutique food like goat cheese. To Allen's amazement and delight, Whole Food caved to his demands. In a statement, the company said that some of its customers weren't comfortable with products made by prisoners, so it would no longer sell them.
The inmates are still milking those goats, though. I was curious about this farm, and set up a visit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @03:12PM (2 children)
Keep in mind that while in prison, they have basically no expenses other than relevant attorney fees and luxury items from the commissary. $5 a day if you don't have anything to spend it on is actually quite a bit of money. That's probably $125 a month. It's also an opportunity like others have said to just get outside of the rather cramped quarters for most of the day.
The only issue I have with this is that the companies aren't paying a prevailing wage to the prison. The prisoners not making the prevailing wage is completely fine by me, they get other perks. But, allowing prison labor to undercut the cost of doing business with non-convicts is a huge problem.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday July 21 2017, @05:36PM (1 child)
I think you either live where things are a lot cheaper than around here, or you have a very archaic idea of prices. $5.00/day is about the price of one sandwich, without coffee. From a vending machine.
Also, prison food is notoriously bad. Occasionally it's actually *caused* hunger strikes, because the prisoners would rather starve than eat the garbage served as food.
Also, saying they have the right to refuse the job is not actually a fair statement. It's about the same as saying you have the right not to visit the hospital emergency room. Technically it's usually true, but the consequences are unpleasant.
Prison labor is only just if it's reasonably preparing the prisoner for a job outside which is actually likely to be available and which would pay a living wage. Please note that I didn't say anything about wages while in prison. That's a separate argument and requirement which I don't have a decided opinion on. (Well, not strictly true. Some things are clearly unjust, but that's too long a list to contemplate without an organizing principle.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @08:41PM
You're not going to get a meal delivered in prison. But there are things that you are allowed to have inn prison that do make a difference.
These are criminals and the real benefit to this is the time outside with fresh air.