The Texas Supreme Court will review whether GEO Group is an instrumentality or agency of the government, thus making the private prison operator eligible for a nearly $4 million sales tax refund. btaxgo.com/LJSIZoa

Welcome to Labor Day in America where slavery and forced labor is still legal. 800,000 people are subjected today to unpaid or virtually unpaid labor in prisons. This is me with a short explainer on the topic. Labor is labor. All workers deserve workers’ rights.

This Labor Day, we’re thinking of the 800,000+ incarcerated people who are forced to labor in this country thanks to the exception in the 13th Amendment that allows slavery as punishment for a crime. Read their firsthand accounts of slavery at endtheexception.com/letters.

For Labor Day, I wrote about mass incarceration, workers, and movements for economic justice with the wonderful Brian Nam-Sonenstein (Side note: Prison Policy Initiative is absolutely incredible at what they do.)

Slavery still exists. It's called prison labor. This Labor Day, we're joining our partners Worth Rises in shining a light on the injustice happening in prisons across the nation. Watch the video and join us in the fight to #EndTheException: lastprisonerproject.org/this-labor-day…

In observance of #LaborDay, let's talk about forced/coerced #prison labor, a contemporary form of #slavery that perpetuates mass incarceration and harms both incarcerated and non-incarcerated workers while making money for both governments and private industry. Settle in. /1

It's Labor Day & it's so important to remember that our brothers & sisters behind bars are still enduring modern-day slavery. MUST check out Worth Rises #EndTheException letter archive written by incarcerated workers forced to labor: letters.endtheexception.com

On this #LaborDay, over 800,000 people are enslaved in U.S. prisons. 200 of them have written to #EndTheException, sharing the horrors of prison slavery with the outside would. You can read their stories in this new archive: endtheexception.com/letters #EndTheException Worth Rises

In Florida, many prisoners work with no pay as the state charges $50 a day for their incarceration. "All of this is possible because of the exception of the 13th amendment that allows slavery to be used as criminal punishment even today.” theguardian.com/us-news/articl…

Prisons are often painted as de facto treatment centers, but how could that be true when incarcerated people can barely afford medical copays? People behind bars are disproportionately poor & typically earn <$1/hour, making adequate care inaccessible to a vulnerable population.

Since 2021, over 200 incarcerated people have written to the #EndTheException campaign. They have shared their experiences with slavery, forced to work under the threat of punishment for pennies an hour, if anything. Read their stories at brnw.ch/21wMjex.

This is why we fight to end the exception in the 13th Amendment that allows slavery as punishment for a crime. Join us at EndTheException.com.

MA prison & jails are overpaying for prison phone calls and instead of negotiating a new contract, they are threatening to turn off the phones due to the cost. Free calls boost well-being & reentry success, saving the state money. Officials should step up. bostonglobe.com/2024/09/02/opi…

A #MustWatch short film on how Alabama's "correctional" system exploits incarcerated labor for profit. Proud of my friend Maura McNamara for covering this with such care.

This November, voters will be voting on ending prison slavery in both California and Nevada. We urge voters in these states to take to the polls on November 5th to #EndTheException.

Prison is a dangerous place and its horrific conditions can be triggering for anyone. Even so, more than 40% of people behind bars in severe psychological distress have not had mental health treatment. The carceral system is no place for people who need health care.

“The swamp cooler engines were running so hot that they were blowing out hot air into the rooms, turning the rooms into ovens & then into dead chambers.” Formerly incarcerated women push for improved conditions in California prison, Tamar Sarai reports. prismreports.org/2024/09/03/wom…

On this day in 1913, eight Black men at a Texas prison farm suffocated after they were placed in an underground cell as punishment for not picking cotton fast enough. calendar.eji.org/racial-injusti…

Reminder: prisons don't want you to know what's happening on the inside. That's what makes prison journalism so important. This form of censorship by TX officials is unacceptable, to say the least.

While the FCC recently capped phone call rates for incarcerated people, tablets—which are monopolized by just two corporations—are being used to exploit incarcerated people by charging egregious prices.