Microsoft and Nintendo exploit US prison labor

This article lists US companies and subsidiaries that are known to exploit the cheap labor provided by America's increasingly privatized prison system. Some entries are hardly surprising (Walmart, Koch Industries), but others are certain to raise eyebrows (Microsoft, Nintendo of America, Starbucks etc.)

Here's the full list:

• Abbott Laboratories
• AT&T
• AutoZone
• Bank of America
• Bayer
• Berkshire Hathaway
• Cargill
• Caterpillar
• Chevron
• the former Chrysler Group
• Costco Wholesale
• John Deere
• Eddie Bauer
• Eli Lilly
• ExxonMobil
• Fruit of the Loom
• GEICO
• GlaxoSmithKline
• Glaxo Wellcome
• Hoffmann-La Roche
• International Paper
• JanSport
• Johnson & Johnson
• Kmart
• Koch Industries
• Mary Kay
• McDonald’s
• Merck
• Microsoft
• Motorola
• Nintendo of America
• Pfizer
• Procter & Gamble
• Quaker Oats
• Sarah Lee
• Sears
• Shell
• Sprint
• Starbucks
• State Farm Insurance
• United Airlines
• UPS
• Verizon
• Victoria’s Secret
• Wal-Mart
• Wendy’s

How does one "exploit" people who have a debt to repay to society?

VS? i'm shocked and or a little turned on.

Zing.

Dem gulags, Eh?

How is Raytheon not on that list?

That's a rather general statement, as many people in prison are there for victimless crimes. Also, it's not society that benefits, it's private industries.

Aww poor criminals

Nintendo would sell their own grandmas to ISIS for 50 yen a head if they could.

I actually laughed out loud. That was an awesome post.

If it helps them to get jobs after they get out of prison, then I'm all for it. But really, Starbucks? What do they do, make frappés for the inmates?

Had they mended roads, fixed signs and overall done work that directly benefit the society then I don't think many would object.
Having them used as free labor for private companies however isn't exactly repaying a debt to society.

Exactly. These companies are utilizing the man power in these facilities. I think it's a smart move. It's a hell of a better option than letting these guys rot in there without some contribution to society.

The problem is this.. It is a fucking corrupt system.. We have the highest incarceration rate in the west.. In which over half are non violent offenders.. These criminals are not repaying their debts, they are being used for labor by the private sector.. Repaying society is building bridges, cleaning up roads, infastructure stuff that help every one.. These are being used as free labors for the gain of a specific companies profits..

Meanwhile repeat offenders are startling much higher in the United States than other countries.. Then add in the fact how extremely hard it is for a convict to get a decent job with a felony on their record in their life time..

These men and women are not contributing to society directly, they are being exploited for cheap labor by private sectors for their own financial gain.. Then top off the shit Sunday read up on many of the conditions of these privately operated prisons like in Arizona..

John Oliver has a great segment on just how exactly awful the system is.. In which we are seeing people being fleeced to even going to prison on trivial matters.. How can any one condone or find this shit at all acceptable?

I knew about a lot of the stuff covered in the video but didn't know about the private probation companies involved...that shit is infuriating.

Modern day slavery. Quite shameful considering how often our country likes to take this "anti-slavery" position.

Sony is doing it as well albeit in another country

Sony’s PS4 is made with the blood and tears of unpaid blackmailed student laborers

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/168393-sonys-ps4-is-made-with-the-blood-and-tears-of-unpaid-blackmailed-student-laborers

@thebest31406 said:

Modern day slavery. Quite shameful considering how often our country likes to take this "anti-slavery" position.

Sony is doing it as well albeit in another country

Sony’s PS4 is made with the blood and tears of unpaid blackmailed student laborers

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/168393-sonys-ps4-is-made-with-the-blood-and-tears-of-unpaid-blackmailed-student-laborers

In all likelihood so is the computer you are using now.

They get paid (not much) and can buy better soap, make phone calls, etc, in prison.

Didn't know so many were for pretty much modern day slavery.

@Renevent42 said:

@thebest31406 said:

Modern day slavery. Quite shameful considering how often our country likes to take this "anti-slavery" position.

Sony is doing it as well albeit in another country

Sony’s PS4 is made with the blood and tears of unpaid blackmailed student laborers

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/168393-sonys-ps4-is-made-with-the-blood-and-tears-of-unpaid-blackmailed-student-laborers

In all likelihood so is the computer you are using now.

Perhaps even your computer.

Perhaps you should read up on the conditions of some of these prisons.. Arizona the king of privatization "work camps" has some pretty horrifying stories on conditions.. Lets not forget this shit isn't benefiting society, it is promoting a system in which the private sector is making a killing off of... The prison system has become a horrifying privatized monster that quite literally runs off housing as many prisoners as possible.. Not on actually rehabilitation.. IN fact it is beneficial for these industries for rehabilitation to fail so they can have a steady flow of profits through inmate housing, and the private sector using cheap labor.

Its pretty obvious isn't it? American culture has turned into blaming the poor and undesirables in society while completely ignoring the companies behind the scenes making billions by taking advantage of the system..

Do the prisoners get to decide on whether they work or not?

I actually haven't read up on prisons I just figured they were more like county jails except a little stricter that's all I've heard of prisons.

@thebest31406 said:

@Renevent42 said:

@thebest31406 said:

Modern day slavery. Quite shameful considering how often our country likes to take this "anti-slavery" position.

Sony is doing it as well albeit in another country

Sony’s PS4 is made with the blood and tears of unpaid blackmailed student laborers

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/168393-sonys-ps4-is-made-with-the-blood-and-tears-of-unpaid-blackmailed-student-laborers

In all likelihood so is the computer you are using now.

Perhaps even your computer.

Yup, just wanted to make sure you know while you condemn modern day slavery, as a consumer of these products are actively involved in the cycle and perpetuation of it.

Just put it this way.. Sheriff Arpaio has been the target of some 2150 law suits involving things like wrongful prisoner deaths, cruel and unusual punishment.. "50 times as many prison-conditions lawsuits as the New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston jail systems combined." http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-12-20/news/inhumanity-has-a-price/

"the Former Chrysler Group" - surely they must have some other name than that.

Doesn't Starbucks try to have a "progressive" appeal? I guess that's like Apple complaining about Indiana's RFRA law and yet doing business in China and Saudi Arabia.

I don't know enough about these prison-labor systems to tell if the companies are actually "exploiting" prisoners though.

@Renevent42 said:

@thebest31406 said:

@Renevent42 said:

@thebest31406 said:

Modern day slavery. Quite shameful considering how often our country likes to take this "anti-slavery" position.

Sony is doing it as well albeit in another country

Sony’s PS4 is made with the blood and tears of unpaid blackmailed student laborers

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/168393-sonys-ps4-is-made-with-the-blood-and-tears-of-unpaid-blackmailed-student-laborers

In all likelihood so is the computer you are using now.

Perhaps even your computer.

Yup, just wanted to make sure you know while you condemn modern day slavery, as a consumer of these products are actively involved in the cycle and perpetuation of it.

The same goes for you, as well.

So are you a shameful person since you are actively involved in supporting a shameful activity?

You're referring to my "America" comment. I was referring to the state and its institutions that sanction and subsidize the corporations partaking in this endeavor. I wasn't referring to the American population. Also, I don't agree that you and I are actively involved. If we were involved, we would be part of the decision making process of maintaining or ending the practice. We're not to blame, I don't think, but we do bare responsibility as consumers and as such, we have a responsibility to help dismantle it...together.

If you know how something is made, and you still use and buy it, you are actively involved. That's like buying ivory tusks and claiming you have no responsibility and aren't actively involved since you didn't actually shoot the elephant.

I'd say the consumer bears a ton of the blame actually. In China for instance it wasn't until demand for shark fin soup (and other shark fin uses) dropped that the poaching of shark fins started to also drop as well.

I don't agree that you and I are actively involved.

Of course not, then you would have to come to terms with the fact that for all the finger pointing you do that you are part of the reason why it happens in the first place.

Or at the very least, while you have plenty of condemnation to give you certainly don't care enough to stop buying these cheap products that support the practice in the first place. That's pretty active in my eyes.

"Also, I don't agree that you and I are actively involved. If we were involved, we would be part of the decision making process of maintaining or ending the practice. We're not to blame, I don't think, but we do bare responsibility as consumers and as such, we have a responsibility to help dismantle it...together."

Acknowledging that we bare responsibility for what's happening is admitting that we're part of the of the reason for why it happens. 'Blame' isn't synonymous with 'responsibility ' I pointed the finger at the state and the corporations. You have a problem with this, I take it. More than that, you seem to have problem with me doing it.

You denied supporting it is actively participating in it, that's all. It is, of course, especially if one is aware what's happening but still supports it financially anyways. That makes us partially to blame, so if you are going to point fingers and call something shameful that you actively support, well, it just kind seems dishonest.

What do you mean "denied?" I'm not being intransigent, I simply don't agree that we're "actively involved" in this practice. You believe otherwise simply because you say so. That's where we are as far as our positions. You're also making a lot assumptions about what I'm purchasing. I admit to purchasing a Windows computer, but I don't remember saying that I knew any of this before the purchase or that I'll continue to purchase such products in spite of what I know. If, throughout this conversation, we're simply going to assume something about the other without a shred of evidence, why don't I just assume that you go around referring to Black people as the N-word and demand that you prove otherwise.

And there is at least one other member who condemns this practice as much as I do, and yet you're only engaging me. Why is this? I mean, It's almost like...I don't know...you care what I think or something.

You have the same culpability as the companies, after all, they aren't the ones actively enslaving these people are they? They are simply contracting out with a company in a foreign country for the cheapest price, and may or may not know the exact extent of the working conditions of the people actually building the products. Same as you buying these products...it's all a big cycle and if you support, your actively participating in it.

Regarding your last statement, that's just silly. It's a forum.

Anyways I'm sure you have waaaaay more products that have at some level been a product of a sweatshop somewhere in some 3rd world shit hole. And I'm sure this lowly windows computer you have certainly won't be the last either. Everything from TV's, cell phones, radios...forget it...not even going to list it all out. Heck, even stuff assembled in the US is almost certainly using PCB's from companies like (and especially) Foxconn since it's the worlds largest electronic contract manufacturer in the world.

They should do this more with other corporation, it would help the usa economy

Well, if someone knew of these practices and still supported financially these companies by buying their products you could certainly argue that that person is "actively participating" in aiding and abetting (I know it isn't a criminal matter) said companies.

That person could always instead choose to boycott. But boycotting is a pain in the ass, isn't it (not that I'm above any of this).

We're going to get this out of the way once and for all before I respond to any of this because I just find this fascinating. What you are doing is unlike anything I've seen here. When I have an opinion on a issue and that opinion is shared by others, almost every member who disagrees with me goes after me as well as the others. You don't do that...like, at all. I know it's forum, which is why its strange that you've targeted me primarily for an opinion that shared by at least on other member.. Why is this?

How ever large or small one believes the average consumer's burden or responsibility should be, his/her burden is in no way symmetrical to that of state hierarchy that engineers and maintains these deals. It's like suggesting that the troops are as much to blame for the invasion of Iraq as the state that engineered it..

Generally when inmates work they get paid.

True, but it is less then minimum wage. I did a little research before I replied cause I was unsure about how much they'd earn.
Came across this, from The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry (April 2003) by Peter Wagner, published by the Western Prison Project and the Prison Policy Initiative.

Prison labor in the states

• Minimum wage in the United States, in dollars per hour: $5.15
• Average hourly rate paid at a prison camp in Nevada: $0.13
• Maximum wage paid to prisoner workers in dollars per day in Georgia and Texas: $0
• Most prisons that pay prisoners for work have a range of pay depending on the job. Average of the minimum wages for prisoners paid by the states, in dollars per day for non-industry work: $0.93
• Average of the maximum wages paid to prisoners by the states, in dollars per day: $4.73
• Lowest wage reported, in dollars per day, for prisoners working in private industry: $0.16

Source.

soooo.... making those crooks work instead of letting sit on their lazy bums all day is bad?

Perhaps if society profited from it and not private companies.

@horgen: Atleast they are doing something!

A person who commits a crime deserves minimum wage? Are you kidding me? They deserve just enough money to help pay for their time in prison.