The World that Prison Labor Built
The impacts of incarceration reach
far beyond prison walls and into the daily lives of surrounding
residents. Beyond the physical
facilities, we aim to reveal the system of relations that reinforce the
carceral state as an engine for economic and political hegemony. Here we’re looking at a typical delta
community behind the levees of the Mississippi River.
In x-ray view, we begin to see the regime of exploited labor that underlies daily life in the communities that prisons built. Public parks, roads, schools, and churches all benefit from incarcerated labor, whether it is through the inmate work crews that maintain and build them directly or the goods and services that are produced and disseminated from prison factories.
Even within the private spaces of
the home, incarcerated labor is exploited for mass consumption through the
diverse array of goods that prison factories churn out. Everyday items such as mattresses, clothing,
and furniture are all part of this wide array of products. A whole home could be furnished from the
catalog of the carceral state.
State-run
prison manufacturing corporations, such as the Louisiana Prison Enterprises and
Mississippi Prison Industries Corporation publish their ubiquitous range of
wares in expansive catalogs, where they are marketed like any other consumer
product.
