How prison labor is used in animal agriculture
Whether you know it or not, you have likely bought products produced by unpaid or low-paid prison labor. Incarcerated labor fuels an $11 billion-a-year industry, with unpaid or low-wage prison labor helping to keep costs down in sectors like agriculture. In animal agriculture, the use of prison labor creates yet another direct link between the exploitation of both humans and animals for profit.
Research from Colorado State University’s Prison Agriculture Lab finds that two-thirds of states have incarcerated people working in animal agriculture. The university’s Prison Agriculture Lab provides data visualization tools and maps to explore how prison labor is used in agriculture, including animal agriculture. The majority of these programs are livestock-related followed by equine programs, beekeeping, and poultry. These statistics do not include food processing - another important part of the animal agricultural industrial complex.
Prison work programs are controversial. On one hand, these programs can provide incarcerated people with valuable skills and experience that help them find work after leaving prison. On the other hand, these programs often rely on forced labor - in some cases literally modern-day legal slave labor. The 13th amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States included an exception to this abolition: slavery for incarcerated people. “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, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” As of 2022, eight states have outlawed slavery in any case, but sixteen others explicitly allow it (the remaining 26 don’t mention it). Cheap and even unpaid prison labor is used to keep the price of food low, including animal products.
Even where involuntary servitude by people convicted of crimes has been outlawed, the same labor protections do not apply to incarcerated workers, and the average wages for incarcerated workers in the United States is between 13 and 52 cents per hour according to the ACLU. In nine states the minimum wage for these workers is $0. To make matters worse, the government may deduct “up to 80 percent of these wages for ‘room and board,’ court costs, restitution, and other fees like building and sustaining prisons.” So, while not explicitly involuntary servitude, the difference even for paid workers is small.
Satellite image of Hughes Prison, Texas, from the ‘Satellite Image Gallery’. Taking inspiration from the ‘Prison Map’ project by Josh Begley, it is similarly interested in showing how carceral forms of discipline are etched into the landscape. Like agriculture, prisons are commonly located in remote locales hidden from most of the public. Hughes Prison agricultural operations include swine (pig) finishing. Credit: Prison Agriculture Lab.
Slaughterhouse Labor
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the use of prison labor in food processing is the use of incarcerated workers inside slaughterhouses. This is deeply troubling for several reasons. Firstly, slaughterhouses are violent places and sociological research shows that the violence within slaughterhouses often spills out into the community with violence towards other humans. The relationship between slaughterhouse employment and violent crime was present even after taking into account other social factors including poverty, gender, unemployment, immigration, and other similar demographics. This research suggests that the violence slaughterhouse workers are exposed to - and required to carry out - can take a toll, sometimes leading them to reenact that violence against people. Slaughtering animals can be a traumatic, alienating, and desensitizing experience for those who do it. Having incarcerated people work in these settings works against rehabilitative goals. Sociologist Amy Fitzgerald summarized this situation, “If the objectives of these inmate labor programs are truly to increase the employability of inmates and reduce recidivism then the evidence detailed herein provides ample reason to question the strategy of employing inmates in slaughterhouses.”
“If the objectives of these inmate labor programs are truly to increase the employability of inmates and reduce recidivism then the evidence detailed herein provides ample reason to question the strategy of employing inmates in slaughterhouses.”
Credit: Prison Agriculture Lab
A second major issue with using incarcerated workers in this line of work is slaughterhouses are dangerous places to work. Incarcerated workers are particularly vulnerable because they may not have many additional options for work, may be coerced into work, and may not feel able to say “no” when asked to perform dangerous tasks at work in the same way that other workers can. Greater efficiency means increased profits for slaughterhouses, and these industries therefore continually push the limits of how many animals can be slaughtered per minute, which also tends to increase the risk of injury for workers. As of 2018, the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) reported that the average was 16 pigs slaughtered per minute. That means workers in this factory need to kill one pig every four seconds. This kind of speed around blades puts workers at risk of injury or even death. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports that across all industries 27 workers in the United States suffer amputation or hospitalization every day with meatpacking and poultry companies being some of the most dangerous to work for. Incarcerated worker Frank Dwayne Ellington was a tragic example of this, when while working as an incarcerated laborer he was pulled in and killed by a machine in a poultry processing plant. Others may not lose their lives or even limbs, but this type of intense and repetitive work is associated with increased risk of severe and moderate musculoskeletal problems (problems affecting bones, joints, muscles). To summarize, a vulnerable group of people who have limited power to say no (incarcerated people) are being placed in positions to work some of the hardest and most dangerous jobs to provide cheap meat, simultaneously working against the goals of rehabilitation.
We can do better. Working with animals can actually improve the lives of incarcerated people when it is done correctly. One example is the dog training program at La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, CO. This program pairs incarcerated people with dogs without a home. Incarcerated people train them and prepare them for adoption and the dogs actually live within their incarcerated guardians’ rooms during this eight-week training. It provides skills and work experience to incarcerated people, valuable training to dogs that might otherwise be euthanized in a shelter, and these programs are associated with lower anxiety, fewer infractions, and may be associated with higher empathy among the people who participate in them. These outcomes help animals, incarcerated people, and the communities to which these two will return.
Right now, our collective fight for animals is more urgent than ever. Until every animal is safe from factory farms, laboratories, and hunters, we will continue to work towards a kinder world. Inspired to take action? A great place to learn about the issues and add your name in support is Species Unite’s Petitions for Animals page.
Written by Michael Briscoe
Michael Briscoe is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Colorado State University Pueblo. He is the author of the upcoming book Stocks or Stakeholders: The Benefits of Considering Animal Interests. His research and teaching focus on the interconnections of human, animal, and environmental well-being.
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