NCJ Number
178117
Journal
Stanford Law Review Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Dated: January 1998 Pages: 339-398
Date Published
1998
Length
60 pages
Annotation
This paper proposes the reopening of the market for prison goods and labor, with private firms being allowed to contract for prison labor and sell the products of that labor on the open market.
Abstract
Part I provides an overview of the history of prison labor. It describes the role of labor in the theory and practice of the early penitentiary in order to recover a sense of how central labor once was to the penitentiary's internal life and cadence. It then examines the forces that eventually closed the market for prison goods and labor in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The author notes that the demise of prison labor had more to do with politics than humanitarianism. Prison labor disappeared primarily because organized labor unions and business organizations wanted to eliminate the competition. Part II examines the state of prison labor today. It advises that little has changed. The embargo imposed on prison-made goods in the decades surrounding the turn of the century persists to this day. So too does the idleness it invariably promotes. Part III moves from historical to normative analysis. After briefly describing how an open market for prison goods and labor might be structured, it discusses the potential benefits and the risks of lifting the embargo. The normative issues are complex and their resolution controversial. In the end, however, the benefits of reopening the market for prison goods and labor are sufficiently attractive that the burden of proof should shift to those who wish to maintain the status quo and keep the market closed. Part III ends with a turn from normative analysis to positive speculation and examines three ways of freeing prisoners' labor and allowing the sale of prison- made goods on the open market. 389 notes