Principia Discordia

Principia Discordia => Think for Yourself, Schmuck! => Horrorology => Topic started by: Anna Mae Bollocks on June 27, 2012, 07:58:35 PM

Title: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Anna Mae Bollocks on June 27, 2012, 07:58:35 PM
http://www.policymic.com/articles/7771/wal-mart-alec-scandal-company-subjects-female-prison-laborers-to-slave-like-conditions

"Wal-Mart claims they will not tolerate prison or forced labor in the manufacturing of products sold in their stores through a "Standards For Suppliers" mandate. This represents the "public face" of Wal-Mart – leading consumers to believe the company is against such exploitation, refusing to "profit" off of forced labor.

"Wal-Mart uses ALEC's Prison Industries Act. Under federal legislation, private companies have access to prisoners as a workforce. Thousands of products are made for consumers; from produce to aftermarket auto parts, the list is endless. This allows companies to attach labels reading "Made in USA." Wal-Mart has tried to hide their use of prison labor for more than two decades by using sub-contractors and cut-outs.

"Since 1991, Wal-Mart has been buying produce from a corporation out of Arizona, Martori Farms.

"A recent Huffington Post article clearly documents how Martori Farms has been using female prisoners from Arizona's state prisons as farm workers – for the past 20 years.

"Martori Farms pays its imprisoned laborers two dollars per hour, not including the travel time to and from the farm." Women from the Arizona state prison complex at Perryville Unit are assigned to work at Martori Farms ... These women are "forced" to labor long hours in the blazing sun sometimes without sunscreen, water or adequate food ..."

This policy, and the conditions and involvement of Wal-Mart in this kind of slave labor operation is reprehensible and should be criminal. Criminal in that Wal-Mart helped write the laws allowing this kind of exploitation possible. They helped ALEC pass legislation now being used in states that are turning to prisoners to solve labor shortages stemming from the Right to Work and immigration laws. They've created a new form of legalized slavery in the U.S."

Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA THREAD
Post by: E.O.T. on June 27, 2012, 08:04:27 PM


I'M APPARENTLY A HUGE FAN OF MAKING REGRETTABLE DECISIONS, SO I NOW CHOOSE TO POST THIS REPLY:

          i would have loved even the most meaningless task while in jail, i have to imagine prison is a way suckier version

AAAAAND:

          attn: americans: prisoners are stealing our jobs!

IT'S NOT ENOUGH

          to be a minority female to get a job here in the states, now i need to go to jail in az just to be employable. great.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Freeky on June 28, 2012, 08:08:10 AM
I hear what you're saying about needing something to do.  People need things to do or they go crazy.  But believe me when I say that you wouldn't want that job.  Well, probably.  I've never been to jail or prison, so I don't know how bad it gets.  But I do live here, and I would die (no hyperbole, I'm pretty weak against extreme heat) if I had to do that.

For instance, a woman I talked to today said that when she was driving to work, it was 120F out.  I had to cover my arm with a towel so I wouldn't get second degree sunburns in the twenty minutes it was exposed.  When I drove into an area of cloud cover, I sighed in relief in the significant drop in temperature and realized how hard it was to breathe before, and noticed a bank's sign, one of those ones that has temperature and time on it, said that in the cloud cover area it was 111F. 

Shit, even that thing Roger said before, about the sun being so intense that you need some clouds to let the light in, actually happened for real. 

I could not even imagine having to be out in that for ten to twelve hours a day, with no water or sun protection.  Sun screen doesn't do shit on days like today, and Tucson is not the worst when it comes to heat and sun and fumes that only happen when it gets so hot out.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: E.O.T. on June 28, 2012, 06:04:27 PM
Quote from: The Freeky of SCIENCE! on June 28, 2012, 08:08:10 AM
I hear what you're saying about needing something to do.  People need things to do or they go crazy.  But believe me when I say that you wouldn't want that job.  Well, probably.  I've never been to jail or prison, so I don't know how bad it gets.  But I do live here, and I would die (no hyperbole, I'm pretty weak against extreme heat) if I had to do that.

For instance, a woman I talked to today said that when she was driving to work, it was 120F out.  I had to cover my arm with a towel so I wouldn't get second degree sunburns in the twenty minutes it was exposed.  When I drove into an area of cloud cover, I sighed in relief in the significant drop in temperature and realized how hard it was to breathe before, and noticed a bank's sign, one of those ones that has temperature and time on it, said that in the cloud cover area it was 111F. 

Shit, even that thing Roger said before, about the sun being so intense that you need some clouds to let the light in, actually happened for real. 

I could not even imagine having to be out in that for ten to twelve hours a day, with no water or sun protection.  Sun screen doesn't do shit on days like today, and Tucson is not the worst when it comes to heat and sun and fumes that only happen when it gets so hot out.

WELL,

          at least someone read the article. (!)

YEAH

          that's fully lame, but not unexpected. i was asked to dj burning man back in '99 and after five days in a world of nothing but silty sand and no living greenery, i would probably have to be arrested in order to go anywhere near that kind of environment ever, ever again.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Anna Mae Bollocks on June 28, 2012, 06:09:45 PM
People in county would be happy to have something to do other than play spades, spades, spades fifteen times a day, read shitty Barbara Cartland romances from the book cart, geek for cigarettes and worry whether there's going to be anything left of their life when they get out, yes.

But "something to do" usually doesn't involve heatstroke.

I hear ya, Freeky, I can't take it either. I'm ok with sun, I tan pretty good - it's the heat itself. It's been triple digits here and I'm basically living in my daughter's room because she has the window unit and it's not enough to cool the whole house once you pass 90 or so. I see spots every time I go to the bathroom. Couldn't work in this.

I've heard plenty of prison stories about people who passed out in the field and got an ass beating. It's not a place where you can expect sympathy.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA THREAD
Post by: The Good Reverend Roger on June 28, 2012, 07:31:48 PM
Quote from: E.O.T. on June 27, 2012, 08:04:27 PM


I'M APPARENTLY A HUGE FAN OF MAKING REGRETTABLE DECISIONS, SO I NOW CHOOSE TO POST THIS REPLY:

          i would have loved even the most meaningless task while in jail, i have to imagine prison is a way suckier version

Arizona sun, EOT.  Different ballgame entirely.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: E.O.T. on June 28, 2012, 07:37:04 PM
I'm

          From the north so can't tell, but it sound like hell either way
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: The Good Reverend Roger on June 28, 2012, 07:38:48 PM
Quote from: E.O.T. on June 28, 2012, 07:37:04 PM
I'm

          From the north so can't tell, but it sound like hell either way

No, hell has complied with OSHA standards.

Arizona, on the other hand, misses the good old days of the 1930s.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Anna Mae Bollocks on June 28, 2012, 08:02:30 PM
We're pulling ahead of AZ, though. Texas misses the good old days from the dark ages.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/27/texas-republican-party-2012-platform-education_n_1632097.html
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Juana on June 28, 2012, 09:51:14 PM
I am so, so glad I don't live in your state anymore, Stella. JFC. Also, fuck your state's education board for its curricula in general.


QuoteThis is so shocking, that U.S. farmers and Wal-Mart would take advantage of prisoners, especially women, and do it in such a clearly abusive manner by forcing them to work under “slave-like” conditions. 
Somebody slept through US history. Although prisoners now aren't being forced to try to pay back a fine and the demographics are not quite the same these days (it's not just black men this time), this isn't the first time prisoners have worked in slave-like conditions while being loaned out to third parties.

edited for coding fail
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: The Good Reverend Roger on June 28, 2012, 09:53:38 PM
Quote from: TEXAS FAIRIES FOR ALL YOU SPAGS on June 28, 2012, 08:02:30 PM
We're pulling ahead of AZ, though. Texas misses the good old days from the dark ages.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/27/texas-republican-party-2012-platform-education_n_1632097.html

We have the same GOP platform here. 

Welcome to AZ.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Anna Mae Bollocks on June 28, 2012, 11:11:17 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on June 28, 2012, 09:53:38 PM
Quote from: TEXAS FAIRIES FOR ALL YOU SPAGS on June 28, 2012, 08:02:30 PM
We're pulling ahead of AZ, though. Texas misses the good old days from the dark ages.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/27/texas-republican-party-2012-platform-education_n_1632097.html

We have the same GOP platform here. 

Welcome to AZ.

*swats uselessly at spores* FUCK.

Quote from: Secret Agent GARBO on June 28, 2012, 09:51:14 PM
I am so, so glad I don't live in your state anymore, Stella. JFC. Also, fuck your state's education board for its curricula in general.


QuoteThis is so shocking, that U.S. farmers and Wal-Mart would take advantage of prisoners, especially women, and do it in such a clearly abusive manner by forcing them to work under "slave-like" conditions. 
Somebody slept through US history. Although prisoners now aren't being forced to try to pay back a fine and the demographics are not quite the same these days (it's not just black men this time), this isn't the first time prisoners have worked in slave-like conditions while being loaned out to third parties.

edited for coding fail

I took the word "shocking" to be a journalistic attempt at dramatic effect. Kind of like the way Geraldo used to use the word. "On our next show, shocking evidence of a shocking Satanic cult in Paducah, KY. Is your child safe? SHOCKING."

ETA: Not to imply that the story isn't horrific. Just that "shocking" is a bullshit word.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Juana on June 28, 2012, 11:28:31 PM
It stank of naivety to me, but I can see that.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Roly Poly Oly-Garch on July 04, 2012, 11:33:35 PM
Quote from: TEXAS FAIRIES FOR ALL YOU SPAGS on June 28, 2012, 06:09:45 PM
People in county would be happy to have something to do other than play spades, spades, spades fifteen times a day, read shitty Barbara Cartland romances from the book cart, geek for cigarettes and worry whether there's going to be anything left of their life when they get out, yes.


No spades in Larimer County last I was visiting. Cards were contraband due to the high incidence of gambling for Ramens. At one point I occupied nearly a day and a half of waking hours measuring my cell with a piece of notebook paper and doing hand calculations for the volume, the angles, etc...then it was back to shitty book cart readings, basketball court scuffles and playing chess for ramens.

Still preferable to slave labor, though.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Triple Zero on July 04, 2012, 11:50:47 PM
So, how often when a label reads "made in the USA" it means "made by forced prison labor"? .. suddenly worried about that "American Apparal" shirt I bought in NYC (it's got a Helvetica font on it! :P)
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Anna Mae Bollocks on July 05, 2012, 01:59:04 AM
If anybody can find those stats, I'd like to see them.

Google turns up a lot of articles, but I can't find the stats.

This link says we're exporting prison-made merchandise to China http://people.umass.edu/kastor/private/prison-labor.html

Here's the UNICOR site, and that's just federal prisons http://www.unicor.gov/
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA THREAD
Post by: navkat on July 05, 2012, 11:35:49 AM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on June 28, 2012, 07:31:48 PM
Quote from: E.O.T. on June 27, 2012, 08:04:27 PM


I'M APPARENTLY A HUGE FAN OF MAKING REGRETTABLE DECISIONS, SO I NOW CHOOSE TO POST THIS REPLY:

          i would have loved even the most meaningless task while in jail, i have to imagine prison is a way suckier version

Arizona sun, EOT.  Different ballgame entirely.

Not even the half of it. The bigger picture here is that when prison becomes profitable on both ends (selling products and services to the prisoners AND making them pay for those products and services through backbreaking, free labor), there's no compelling reason for them NOT to use power and influence to change laws and practices in ways that will scootch the margins over to include certain societal behaviors under the heading of "jailable offenses."

This is why even you are at risk of someday finding yourself serving 24 months to five years for "bullying," "stalking" or "terrorism" for trolling an internet forum or saying something clumsy in the breakroom at work. One day, your snarky comments about what ever dumbass made the coffee is something you've been doing for two years. The next day, you say it in front of the wrong person the morning after a special interest piece on "zero tolerance for office bullying" came on the local and you walk out of the building in cuffs.

And the funny thing about that is once the cuffs go on, your crdibility goes in the trash so no one gives a shit when you say "Can you believe this? This is crazy! I was JOKING!"

Of COURSE you'd deny it, you're a criminal.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: GlompChomp on August 16, 2012, 12:18:04 AM
Human enslavement, an old problem with a new face. Slave masters have to be clever.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: POFP on May 16, 2015, 04:02:20 PM
I always thought any type of labor for private companies by prisoners was a choice. I thought it worked a little like this:

Prisoner has a 4 year sentence. But, if he does some labor work for any of the various companies that offer it through the prison, he can earn anything from privileges, to the label of "good behavior," and possibly small amounts of money (Or prison currency (Cigarettes, right? Too many shows/movies?)). But at the end of the day, he could also choose to just sit in his cell and serve his sentence.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Cain on May 16, 2015, 05:23:44 PM
Quote from: PlightOfFernandoPoo on May 16, 2015, 04:02:20 PM
I always thought any type of labor for private companies by prisoners was a choice. I thought it worked a little like this:

Prisoner has a 4 year sentence. But, if he does some labor work for any of the various companies that offer it through the prison, he can earn anything from privileges, to the label of "good behavior," and possibly small amounts of money (Or prison currency (Cigarettes, right? Too many shows/movies?)). But at the end of the day, he could also choose to just sit in his cell and serve his sentence.

Nope.

Quote from: Wikipedia "Penal Labor in the USA"Over the years, the courts have held that inmates may be required to work and are not protected by the constitutional prohibition against involuntary servitude.[11] They have also consistently held that inmates have no constitutional right to compensation and that inmates are paid by the "grace of the state."[11] Under the Federal Bureau of Prisons, all able-bodied sentenced prisoners were required to work, except those who participated full time in education or other treatment programs or who were considered security risks.[11] Correctional standards promulgated by the American Correctional Association provide that sentenced inmates, who are generally housed in maximum, medium, or minimum security prisons, be required to work and be paid for that work.[11] Some states require, as with Arizona, all able-bodied inmates to work.[12]
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: MMIX on May 16, 2015, 05:31:50 PM
Quote from: Cain on May 16, 2015, 05:23:44 PM
Quote from: PlightOfFernandoPoo on May 16, 2015, 04:02:20 PM
I always thought any type of labor for private companies by prisoners was a choice. I thought it worked a little like this:

Prisoner has a 4 year sentence. But, if he does some labor work for any of the various companies that offer it through the prison, he can earn anything from privileges, to the label of "good behavior," and possibly small amounts of money (Or prison currency (Cigarettes, right? Too many shows/movies?)). But at the end of the day, he could also choose to just sit in his cell and serve his sentence.

Nope.

Quote from: Wikipedia "Penal Labor in the USA"Over the years, the courts have held that inmates may be required to work and are not protected by the constitutional prohibition against involuntary servitude.[11] They have also consistently held that inmates have no constitutional right to compensation and that inmates are paid by the "grace of the state."[11] Under the Federal Bureau of Prisons, all able-bodied sentenced prisoners were required to work, except those who participated full time in education or other treatment programs or who were considered security risks.[11] Correctional standards promulgated by the American Correctional Association provide that sentenced inmates, who are generally housed in maximum, medium, or minimum security prisons, be required to work and be paid for that work.[11] Some states require, as with Arizona, all able-bodied inmates to work.[12]

With that catchy national anthem
. . .
Quotethe land of the free and the home of the slave
or something like that
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Dubya on May 16, 2015, 10:38:23 PM
When I worked for the Texas prisons, the inmates weren't "required" to work, but if they didn't, their privileges were substantially reduced. E.g. no commisary, no time in the rec yard, no visitation except for their lawyer.

Then again, when I worked for them, they were being watched for civil rights violations as a result of losing a class action suit. I had it on good authority that when the oversight was gone, it would be back to the good old days of gratuitous brutality.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: POFP on May 16, 2015, 10:54:40 PM
Quote from: Cain on May 16, 2015, 05:23:44 PM
Quote from: PlightOfFernandoPoo on May 16, 2015, 04:02:20 PM
I always thought any type of labor for private companies by prisoners was a choice. I thought it worked a little like this:

Prisoner has a 4 year sentence. But, if he does some labor work for any of the various companies that offer it through the prison, he can earn anything from privileges, to the label of "good behavior," and possibly small amounts of money (Or prison currency (Cigarettes, right? Too many shows/movies?)). But at the end of the day, he could also choose to just sit in his cell and serve his sentence.

Nope.

Quote from: Wikipedia "Penal Labor in the USA"Over the years, the courts have held that inmates may be required to work and are not protected by the constitutional prohibition against involuntary servitude.[11] They have also consistently held that inmates have no constitutional right to compensation and that inmates are paid by the "grace of the state."[11] Under the Federal Bureau of Prisons, all able-bodied sentenced prisoners were required to work, except those who participated full time in education or other treatment programs or who were considered security risks.[11] Correctional standards promulgated by the American Correctional Association provide that sentenced inmates, who are generally housed in maximum, medium, or minimum security prisons, be required to work and be paid for that work.[11] Some states require, as with Arizona, all able-bodied inmates to work.[12]

Well, shit. This is starting to piss me off, then.

Quote from: Dubya on May 16, 2015, 10:38:23 PM
When I worked for the Texas prisons, the inmates weren't "required" to work, but if they didn't, their privileges were substantially reduced. E.g. no commisary, no time in the rec yard, no visitation except for their lawyer.

Then again, when I worked for them, they were being watched for civil rights violations as a result of losing a class action suit. I had it on good authority that when the oversight was gone, it would be back to the good old days of gratuitous brutality.

Ah, so it was more negative reinforcement than positive. And that was in the "good" times.

I actually feel dumb for being surprised by that.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Dubya on May 17, 2015, 05:36:07 PM
As far as I know, TDCJ only made things for the prison system itself, not for outside commerce. But I had little to do with that end of things. I was busy enough trying to make sure everyone stayed where they were supposed to be, in more or less the same state of health as when my shift started.

I do know that somewhere in Texas, theres a prison where they make bologna. Its green. Most inmates ate from their commisary stash on bologna days.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: POFP on May 17, 2015, 05:49:51 PM
FUCK. I already can't stand bologna. Every piece of bologna I see from now on will be imagined as green.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on May 18, 2015, 01:59:08 AM
I also learned recently that while I had been under the impression that prison inmates are entitled to a college education, actually they are only permitted to take correspondence/online courses if they are court ordered to, and it is very rare.

Good times!
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: POFP on May 18, 2015, 02:06:53 AM
Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on May 18, 2015, 01:59:08 AM
I also learned recently that while I had been under the impression that prison inmates are entitled to a college education, actually they are only permitted to take correspondence/online courses if they are court ordered to, and it is very rare.

Good times!

Shit. I was just under that impression until just now. I know several people that are currently under that impression.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on May 18, 2015, 06:00:27 AM
Quote from: PlightOfFernandoPoo on May 18, 2015, 02:06:53 AM
Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on May 18, 2015, 01:59:08 AM
I also learned recently that while I had been under the impression that prison inmates are entitled to a college education, actually they are only permitted to take correspondence/online courses if they are court ordered to, and it is very rare.

Good times!

Shit. I was just under that impression until just now. I know several people that are currently under that impression.

Sadly, no. Can't have those degenerate criminals learning skills that might make them able to earn a living! It's unAmerican.
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: POFP on May 18, 2015, 08:11:19 AM
Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on May 18, 2015, 06:00:27 AM
Quote from: PlightOfFernandoPoo on May 18, 2015, 02:06:53 AM
Quote from: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on May 18, 2015, 01:59:08 AM
I also learned recently that while I had been under the impression that prison inmates are entitled to a college education, actually they are only permitted to take correspondence/online courses if they are court ordered to, and it is very rare.

Good times!

Shit. I was just under that impression until just now. I know several people that are currently under that impression.

Sadly, no. Can't have those degenerate criminals learning skills that might make them able to earn a living! It's unAmerican.

But... but... If they were taught how to make livable or enjoyable amounts of money through legal means and honest use of community resources, then they wouldn't commit crimes. If they don't commit crimes, how the hell are we gonna have enough prisoners to have prison guard jobs? If we decrease the number of prisoners, we lose jobs. YOUR ANTI JOB! YOUR A GOTDAMN TERRIST!
Title: Re: UNLIMITED MADE WITH PRIDE IN THE USA APPRECIATION THREAD
Post by: Dubya on May 18, 2015, 03:59:32 PM
 :lulz:

Spoken like a Texan.