The U.S. prison system has been under increasing scrutiny in recent years for issues such as systemic racism, inhumane conditions, overcrowding, and sexual violence. While these issues are extremely pressing, another important issue, forced prison labor, is often overlooked. Therefore, as a labor rights organization, Verité determined that we could most effectively contribute to the critique of the U.S. prison system by lending an international human rights lens to the conversation on prison labor. For this briefing document, Verité carried out desk-based research to analyze the risk of forced labor in U.S. prisons based on the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) standards, guidance, and indicators of forced labor. Under each of these frameworks, Verité found a high risk of forced labor in the U.S. prison system. Recently, prison labor has made international headlines in other parts of the world, including prison-made goods in China linked to international supply chains and proposals by the governments of Malaysia and Thailand to use prison labor to address labor shortages in certain sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the media, civil society organizations, and governments rightfully critique the prison labor situations in other countries, we urge all stakeholders to apply the same level of scrutiny to the U.S. prison labor system, while also paying careful attention to the role that race plays in incarceration in the United States.
Work behind bars: Analysis of prison labor in the United States based on international labor standards - Verité, June 2022 DOWNLOAD

post

page

attachment

revision

nav_menu_item

custom_css

customize_changeset

oembed_cache

user_request

wp_block

wp_template

wp_template_part

wp_global_styles

wp_navigation

wp_font_family

wp_font_face

acf-taxonomy

acf-post-type

acf-field-group

acf-field

ai1ec_event

exactmetrics_note

Underground Lives: Aspirational Britain: Survivors of Modern Slavery Want to Work Too
News & AnalysisPublications

Britain is in an employment crisis. Labour shortages are hitting record highs and firms are recruiting from abroad which is costly. At the same time there are currently more than 7,000 survivors of modern slavery who are being supported by the G...Read More

TAGS: Europe
Tech-Driven Insight to Address Labor Exploitation: TAT Launches Third Accelerator
News & Analysis

This month, Tech Against Trafficking (TAT) launched the third iteration of its flagship Accelerator program, partnering with Issara Institute and Polaris Project’s Nonechka program. TAT aims to exponentially accelerate the impact of the promising ...Read More

The Role of Agents and Brokers in Facilitating Ethiopian Women into Domestic Work in the Middle East
News & AnalysisPublications

Large numbers of Ethiopian women seek domestic work in the “Middle East Corridor”—a signifcant social trend that reflects a key livelihood strategy used by Ethiopian families and communities in the face of widespread poverty (Kuschminder, Ande...Read More

Myanmar: The social atrocity: Meta and the right to remedy for the Rohingya
News & AnalysisPublications

Beginning in August 2017, the Myanmar security forces undertook a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State. They unlawfully killed thousands of Rohingya, including young children; raped and c...Read More

TAGS: Asia