Blas Sanchez was nearing the end of a 20-year stretch in an Arizona prison when he was leased out to work at Hickman’s Family Farms, which sells eggs that end up in the supply chains of huge companies like McDonald’s, Target and Albertsons. While assigned to a machine that churns chicken droppings into compost, his right leg got pulled into a chute with a large spiraling augur.

“I could hear ‘crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch,’” Sanchez said. “I couldn’t feel anything, but I could hear the crunch.”

He recalled frantically clawing through mounds of manure to tie a tourniquet around his bleeding limb. He then waited for what felt like hours while rescuers struggled to free him so he could be airlifted to a hospital. His leg was amputated below the knee.

Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of prisoners are put to work every year, some of whom are seriously injured or killed after being given dangerous jobs with little or no training, The Associated Press found. They include prisoners fighting wildfires, operating heavy machinery or working on industrial-sized farms and meat-processing plants tied to the supply chains of leading brands. These men and women are part of a labor system that – often by design – largely denies them basic rights and protections guaranteed to other American workers.

  • @refalo
    link
    21 month ago

    and what if they don’t do what they want?

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      11 month ago

      A quick Googling suggests bread and water for food, solitary for a month, and showers once a week.

      No idea how this backwards-ass hole ever became a superpower.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        230 days ago

        No idea how this backwards-ass hole ever became a superpower.

        Well I’m sure the cheap slave labor helped.

      • @refalo
        link
        0
        edit-2
        29 days ago

        Pretty sure that would be a human rights violation. Got a source for that?

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          029 days ago

          https://www.ctas.tennessee.edu/eli/punishment-refusing-work

          Pursuant to T.C.A. § 41-2-120(a), any prisoner refusing to work or becoming disorderly may be confined in solitary confinement or subjected to such other punishment, not inconsistent with humanity, as may be deemed necessary by the sheriff for the control of the prisoners, including reducing sentence credits pursuant to the procedure established in T.C.A. § 41-2-111. Such prisoners refusing to work, or while in solitary confinement, shall receive no credit for the time so spent. T.C.A. § 41-2-120(b).

          https://www.quora.com/What-happens-if-you-refuse-to-work-in-prison

          • @refalo
            link
            029 days ago

            for the control of the prisoners

            What does this mean? I assume the clause is moreso meant for unruly prisoners and not just simply refusing in the first place? And since this is state law, I’m guessing it can be very different across the others.