A hidden path to America's tables begins here, at an unlikely source: a former Southern slave plantation that is now
the nation's largest maximum-security prison.
Unmarked trucks filled with
prison-raised cattle
leave the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where men are sentenced to hard labor and forced to work, for pennies an hour or
sometimes for nothing
.
After traveling a country road to an auction house, the
cows are purchased by a local rancher
and then The Associated Press follows them another thousand kilometers to
a Texas slaughterhouse
that feeds the supply chains of giants like
McDonald's, Walmart and Cargill.
.
Intricate, invisible networks
like this link some of the
world's largest food companies and
most popular
brands
to work done by American prisoners
across the country,
according to a sweeping
two-year
AP investigation into prison labor that linked products agricultural goods worth hundreds of millions of dollars with goods sold on the open market.
They are among the most vulnerable workers in the United States.
By refusing to work, some
may jeopardize their chance for parole
or
face punishments
such as solitary confinement.
They are also often excluded from the protections guaranteed to almost all other full-time workers, even when they are seriously injured or
killed on the job.
From jail to Target
The goods these inmates produce
end up in the supply chains of a huge variety of products
found in most American kitchens, from
Frosted Flakes cereal
and Ball Park sausage to Gold Medal flour,
Coca-Cola
, and Riceland rice.
They're on the shelves of virtually
every supermarket
in the country, including Kroger,
Target
, Aldi, and
Whole Foods
.
And
some goods are
even exported to countries that are not allowed to ship products to the United States because they use forced or prison labor.
Willie Ingram harvested everything from cotton to okra during his 51 years in the state penitentiary, better known as Angola.
Photo: AP
Many of the companies that buy directly from prisons
violate their own policies
against using that type of labor.
But
it is completely legal
and is largely explained by the need for labor to help rebuild
the South's exhausted economy after the Civil War.
Enshrined in the Constitution through the 13th Amendment, slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited
except as punishment for a crime.
That clause is currently being challenged at the federal level, and efforts to remove similar language from state constitutions are expected to reach the polls in about a dozen states this year.
Some prisoners work on the same plantation lands where
slaves harvested cotton,
tobacco and sugar cane more than 150 years ago, and some current images appear eerily similar to those of the past.
In Louisiana, which has one of the highest incarceration rates in the country, men who work on the “farm line” still harvest crops that stretch into the distance.
Willie Ingram harvested everything
from cotton to okra during his 51 years in the state penitentiary, better known as Angola.
During his work in the fields, he was watched by armed guards on horseback and recalled seeing men working with little or no water, fainting under the scorching heat.
Some days, he said, workers threw their tools in the air to protest, despite knowing the possible consequences.
Some images are eerily similar to those of the past.
Photo taken in 1981. Photo: AP
“Maybe four of them came in the truck with shields covering their faces and batons, and they hit you right there, in the field.
They beat you, they handcuff you and they beat you again,” said Ingram, who received a life sentence after pleading guilty to a crime he said he did not commit.
He was informed that he would serve 10 and a half years and avoid a possible death sentence, but it was only in 2021 that a sympathetic judge finally released him.
He was 73 years old.
Photo taken in 2011. Photo: AP
The number of people incarcerated in the United States began to skyrocket in the 1970s, just as Ingram entered the system, and
it disproportionately affects people of color.
Now, with around
2 million people imprisoned
, American prison labor in all sectors has transformed into
a multibillion-dollar empire
that extends far beyond the classic images of inmates stamping license plates, working on road crews or fighting. against forest fires.
Although almost every state has some type of agricultural program, agriculture represents only a small fraction of the total prison workforce.
However, an analysis of data collected by the AP from correctional facilities across the country found nearly $200 million in sales of agricultural products and livestock to businesses over the past six years, a conservative figure that does not include tens of millions more in sales. to states and government entities.
Much of the data provided was incomplete, although it was clear that the largest income came from
expanding establishments in the south and from the leasing of prisoners to companies.
Corrections officials and other defenders of the system point out that not all labor is forced and that prison jobs
save taxpayers money
.
For example, in some cases, food produced
is served in prison kitchens
or donated to those in need outside.
Practice comes the need for labor to help rebuild the South's exhausted economy after the Civil War.
Photo: AP
They also say workers learn skills they can use when they are released and the ability to set goals, which could help prevent recidivism.
In some places, it also allows prisoners
to reduce the length of their sentence
.
And jobs are a way to
pay a debt to society
, they say.
While most critics do not believe all jobs should be eliminated, they say incarcerated people
should be paid a fair wage, treated humanely
, and that all work should be voluntary.
Some point out that even when people receive specialized training like firefighting, their criminal records can make it nearly impossible to get hired when they're out.
“In general, they do not receive remuneration, they are forced to work and the situation is insecure.
They also don't learn skills that will help them when they are released,” said law professor Andrea Armstrong, an expert on prison labor at Loyola University New Orleans.
"This raises the question of why we continue to force people to work in the fields."
Shadow workforce with few protections
In addition to turning to
cheap, reliable labor
, companies sometimes get tax credits and other financial incentives.
Incarcerated workers are also often not protected by
the most basic safeguards
, such as compensation for their work and federal safety standards.
In many cases,
they cannot file
official complaints about poor working conditions.
These prisoners often work in industries with severe labor shortages, performing some of the
dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in the country.
A guard guards prisoners returning from working on the land.
Photo: AP
The AP reviewed
thousands of pages of documents and spoke with more than 80 people imprisoned or released,
including men and women convicted of crimes ranging from murder to shoplifting, writing bad checks, theft or other related illegal acts. with drug consumption.
Some received long sentences for non-violent crimes because they had previous convictions, while others were released after proving their innocence.
Journalists encountered people who had been
injured or maimed at work
, and also interviewed women who had
been sexually harassed or abused,
sometimes by their civilian supervisors or the correctional officers who monitored them.
While it is often nearly impossible for those involved in workplace accidents to file a lawsuit, the AP analyzed dozens of cases that made it through the court system.
The journalists also spoke with relatives of prisoners who
ended up dead.
One of them was
Frank Dwayne Ellington
, who was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after robbing a man's wallet at gunpoint, as a result of Alabama's habitual offender law.
In 2017, Ellington, 33, was cleaning a machine near the Ashland chicken “kill line” at
Koch Foods
– one of the largest poultry processing companies in the country – when
its rotating teeth caught his arm and They sucked him in
, crushing his skull.
He died instantly.
During a years-long legal battle, Koch Foods at first argued that Ellington was not technically an employee and later said that his family should be barred from suing for wrongful death because the company
had paid his funeral expenses
.
The case was ultimately settled on undisclosed terms.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company
$19,500
, alleging that workers had not received proper training and that their machines had inadequate safety systems.
“He's someone's son, he's someone's father, he's someone's uncle, he's someone's relative,” said Ellington's mother, Alishia Powell-Clark.
“Yes, they acted badly, but they are paying for it.”
Inmates, in many cases, cannot file official complaints about poor working conditions.
Photo: AP
The AP found that American prison labor is present in the supply chains of products that are
shipped around the world through multinational companies
, including to countries that have been sanctioned with import bans by Washington in recent years.
For example, the United States has blocked shipments of cotton from China, a major manufacturer of popular clothing brands, because the clothing was made
using forced or prison labor
.
But crops harvested by American prisoners
have entered the supply chains of companies that export to China.
While prison labor seeps into some companies' supply chains through third-party suppliers without their knowledge, others buy directly.
Giant traders of raw materials that are essential to feeding the world such as Cargill, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus, Archer Daniels Midland and Consolidated Grain and Barge – which together have annual revenues of more than $400 billion – have in recent years received soybeans , corn and wheat
worth millions of dollars directly from prisons, which compete with local farmers.
The AP asked companies with ties to prison labor for comment, but
most did not respond.
Cargill acknowledged purchasing products from rural correctional facilities
in Tennessee, Arkansas and Ohio, saying they made up only a small portion of the company's total volume.
He added that “we are now in the process of determining appropriate corrective action.”
McDonald's said it would investigate links
to any such work, while Archer Daniels Midland and General Mills, which produces Gold Medal flour, referenced policies in place at the company that restrict suppliers' use of forced labor.
Whole Foods responded flatly: "
Whole Foods Market does not allow the use of prison labor
in products sold in our stores."
Bunge said it sold all the facilities that were supplied to the correctional departments in 2021, so they “are no longer part of the Bunge footprint.”
Dairy Farmers of America, a cooperative that calls itself
the world's largest supplier of raw milk,
said that while it has purchased from prisons, it now only has one “member dairy” in one prison, and that most of that milk is use inside.
To understand the business of prison labor and the complex movement of agricultural products, the AP collected information from all 50 states through public records requests and inquiries to corrections departments.
Journalists also crisscrossed the country,
following trucks carrying grain and livestock
linked to prison labor and transport vans from prisons and prisoner employment centers heading to places such as
poultry plants, egg farms and fast-food restaurants.
The lack of transparency and sometimes disconcerting losses that audits revealed added to the complexities of keeping complete track of money.
Big-ticket items like row crops and livestock
are sold on the open market,
and profits are reinvested in agricultural programs.
For example, about a dozen rural state prisons, including facilities in Texas, Virginia, Kentucky and Montana, have sold more than $60 million worth of livestock since 2018.
As with other sales, the path the cows follow can be winding.
Because they are often sold online through auction houses or at livestock yards, it is almost impossible to determine where the meat ultimately ends up.
Sometimes there's only one way to know for sure.
In Louisiana, an AP journalist watched as three long trailers loaded with more than 80 head of cattle left the state penitentiary.
The prisoner-raised cows traveled for about an hour before being unloaded
for sale at Dominique's Farm Market in Baton Rouge.
As they were pushed through a gate into a show pen, the auctioneer jokingly warned buyers: "Careful!"
The cows, he said,
had just escaped from prison.
Within minutes, the Angola lot was purchased by a local cattle dealer, who then sold it to a Texas meatpacker that also buys cows directly from that state's prisons.
Meat from the slaughterhouse ends up in the supply chains of some of the country's largest fast-food companies, supermarkets and meat exporters, such as
Burger King, Sam's Club and Tyson Foods.
“It's a real slap in the face to know where all those cattle are going,” said Jermaine Hudson, who served 22 years in prison in Angola for a robbery conviction before being acquitted.
He said the situation is especially irritating because the food served in the jail
tastes like garbage.
“Those were some of the
most disrespectful
meals I ever had to endure in my life,” Hudson said.
Translation: Elisa Carnelli