Modern Day Slavery

Believe it or not, slavery still exist in America today. Incarceration is a form of slavery, as the 13th Amendment's text acknowledges: "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".
     In America, prisons have become a form of business, where billionaires invest in opening private prisons for their own personal gains. Here in Massachusetts, facilities such as North Central Correctional Institutions have their prisoners doing landscape and kitchen work for no pay at all. The institution call it volunteer work. What they tell their prisoners is: if an inmate is willing to volunteer, eventually these volunteers will be able to move to a position to earn good time (time-off their sentence), the next position is to move to a slot which earns $1.00 a day. Does this system sound familiar?
     Before Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, this was the same system used in slavery. Slaves would work endlessly in the fields, earning next to nothing. The ones who could earn money from their so-called masters, would save the little they earned, hoping they can buy their freedom back. Along with the dream of buying their freedom, they had the dream of buying back their children or family members.
     This system is also used in the sex trade, another form of slavery. Women from Asia or a third world country who is sold into the sex trade is often told the same. They are told each day they must meet a goal of performing sex acts on a large number of clients. To earn their freedom back, their is a set number of men they have to sleep with. The number ranges to the thousands and it could take years to buy and regain their freedom.
     In the United States, prisons have turned into concrete plantations. We are the top ranking country to have the most prisons in the world. There are over 2 million people incarcerated in America. The idea of profiting from prison labor has played a major role to advance mass incarceration in the United States. Companies such as CoreCivic and GEO profit from private prisons and prison labor. These companies trade on the New York stock exchange, in which they hold power and influence for an expanding market share. Similar to the history of slavery, these people are profiting from human misery.
     Mass incarceration continue to grow due to prosecutors scare tactics. According to Criminal Legal News "prosecutors wreck havoc on the life of a person who insist he or she is innocent and want to exercise their right to a jury trial". Prosecutors over charge suspects to frighten them into a plea bargain, in turn to avoid severe penalties. The overwhelming majority of criminal convictions are the consequence of plea bargains, more than 95% are by guilty pleas. Quoted from Dan Stohr an Illinois attorney, "when you have been pushed around and ground down, that may seem like the best choice under the circumstances".
    Even at trial it is hard for a defendant to effectively fight and claim their innocence. The law gives jurors less discretion than in the past. Many of the defense arguments that were carried in criminal trials a century ago are off limits in today's systems. Defendants find it harder to claim a lack of criminal intent, when that concept is defined more automated and much favorable to the government. Criminal law does not function as law. Rather the law defines a menu of options for prosecutors and police officers as they see fit.
     All who is employed in the criminal justice system or have a stake in it, reaps the benefits from the imprisonment of a human being. Mass incarceration is needed for inmate labor, which is used to get the highest possible returns on profits. Without inmate labor, prisons could not run properly.
     For example, Massachusetts's maximum security prison, Sousa Baranowski Correction Center, has experienced times where it could not properly function due to work stoppages and hunger strikes. In 2016, there were rumors that the Department of Corrections(D.O.C) wanted to make visiting procedures more difficult for families of the incarcerated. This caused inmates to refuse to work and eat. For many inmates, family contact is the most valuable aspect of their lives. The inmate work stoppage caused Sousa Baranowski officials to panic. Prison staff members were now forced to do the hard labor work to keep the facility operating. The prison staff despised this line of work, believing it was below them. As the strike continued, prison officials try their best to negotiate and compromise with the inmates. They convinced inmates to return to work, in exchange, there would be no modifications in the visiting procedures.
     In 2018, the rumors of the change in the D.O.C visiting policy came true. The D.O.C. limited the number of family members who can visit. Families now have to go through a vigorous visiting procedure process. Inmates are now forced to choose between love ones to be added on a pre-approved list. The 2016 negotiations was a lie.
     In the prison system, history is repeating itself. We the incarcerated, have become slaves for the rich. They call it volunteer work, but is it volunteer work when this is the only option to buy our freedom back? They call slave work "good time" to get days off of our sentence. But they barely offer programs, trade skills development or education to rehabilitate inmates to be good when they enter society. So what "good" comes from profiting on human misery?
     Families were separated and torn apart due to slavery. The D.O.C does the same when it makes visiting procedures difficult for an inmate's family.  In turn, the D.O.C's visiting system deters families away. The number of visitors has drastically dropped. Correctional officers praise the decrease, stating it has made their job much easier.
    The masters of today's criminal justice system have nothing to lose from this mismanagement. They never bear the cost and see the consequences of their bad decisions. When a person is accused of a crime, they are no longer seen as humans. No one cares what happens to them, as long as they go to prison. They become another profitable pawn to a business that many call a system.