Took a job as a breakfast cook in an upscale restaurant a while back. Early mornings, lots of Eggs Benedict, douchey chefs and snotty costumers. Pretty standard restaurant awfulness. On my first day I became aware that the two other cooks on the line were part of a prison work program where they would work six days a week at the restaurant and would have to report back to their housing complex about four blocks away immediately after their shift ended. It turns out that about a third of the staff at the restaurant and much of the hotel staff are there through this program making pennies on the dollar. It turns out this is a fairly common practice in several states.
At face value I would say this is obvious and egregious exploitation, and as such I didn't work there long. While I was there, not a single inmate/worker from the program that I spoke with was happy about their situation, but all of them definitely preferred being in the program to being in jail. I've been to county for a couple of days before, and I have to say, if i were faced with real prison time, I'd much rather be working in a restaurant than sitting in that place.
These companies are very much exploiting these desperate workers. As many food service workers are aware, restaurant work is often incredibly gruelling, stressful, high paced, dirty, dangerous, and demeaning and this place was no exception. The restaurant it self makes money hand over fist and the inmate workers on the morning shift are the backbone of that establishment. Aside from being the right thing to do, paying these workers a normal wage would allow them to pay off any legal debts and restitution faster, save money, and contribute to their families on the outside, but these companies are all too eager to dip their hands in the cookie jar of marginalized labor for their own benefit while taking a sanctimonious, self-congratulatory stance about how altruistic they are. It shows fairly clearly that if these companies could retain workers paying next to nothing they definitely would. As more companies, food service or otherwise, adopt this practice, the implications for the laboring classes are dark. America has the worlds largest prison population. It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine a future where imprisoned labor has become the preferred norm, the ultimate obedient employee who costs next to nothing, and is completely unable to assert their own interests in any way.
What do you guys think? Is this hyper exploitation or a much needed opportunity and escape from the prison environment for these inmate/workers? Are the employers who indulge in such programs doing these folks a favor or taking advantage of their misery?