Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday July 21 2017, @01:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the say-"cheese!" dept.

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.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday July 21 2017, @05:08PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Friday July 21 2017, @05:08PM (#542465)

    As I understand it, one of the biggest problems for people coming out of prison is getting a job. And not only because of their criminal record, but because of a lack of believable work skills.

    The alleged lack of believable work skills something that should be called into question. As in, somebody who's trying to hire for completely unskilled labor like pushing a broom or making sandwiches looks at the criminal record, looks at the skin color of the person trying to get the job, and says "Oh, they don't have the skills to do it." Heck, I know first-hand that some employers will make excuses like that even for non-white guys without a criminal record. The claim about skills is an HR-weasel way to get around the fact that they simply don't want to hire that person for reasons which have nothing to do with their qualifications.

    For white collar jobs, instead of claiming the person doesn't have the right skills, they'll say that the person wasn't a fit for their company culture.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2