Some of America’s most recognizable food brands have achieved their success on the backs of prisoners at corrections facilities throughout the nation.
While many of us associate forced labor camps with countries like Russia, prison labor plays a significant role in the journey from farm to table for much of the U.S.’s food supply. The Louisiana State Penitentiary, which was once a Southern slave plantation and is now the country’s biggest maximum-security prison, is supplying big names like Walmart, McDonald’s and Cargill with meat via prison-raised cattle, according to a two-year investigation by the Associated Press.
This isn’t just an isolated case; the AP reports that similar “invisible webs” tie prison labor to hundreds of millions of dollars of agricultural products and other goods sold in the U.S. They report that it is not unusual for prisoners to be sentenced to hard labor, and those who refuse to work could face punishments like solitary confinement or even risk losing parole opportunities.
he AP identifies a number of popular food items that are produced by prisoners, from Ball Park hot dogs to Frosted Flakes cereal, Coca-Cola and Gold Medal flour. Their products can be found in stores like Whole Foods, Target and Kroger. In some cases, they are exported to other countries, including those whose own products have been blocked from entering America because of their use of prison labor.
One prisoner, Willie Ingram, told the AP about his experience picking okra and cotton on the prison’s farm – on the plantation soil where slaves did the same thing decades ago – during his 51 years behind bars in the Louisiana State Penitentiary. The penitentiary houses 3,800 men, more than two thirds of whom are black, and they work for free but can later earn somewhere between 2 and 40 cents per hour in some cases.
He explained how armed guards on horseback watched as dehydrated prisoners passed out while working in the fields in triple-digit temperatures.
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