Criminal Justice (Probation & Parole) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Criminal Justice (Probation & Parole) - Essay Example However, prison authorities over the years have continued to utilize this labor to their advantage by selling work force to privately owned manufacturing companies, a fact that has attracted a lot of criticism in the past. This is done through contracting and leasing. The contract system of exploiting convict labor for example involved the entering into a deal by prison authorities, with private industries such as garment manufacturers who paid money to the state so that they can be allowed to use prisoners as their laborers (Lichtenstein, 2000). It was considered to be an unfair process especially since these prisoners were subjected to normal or even worse working conditions than workers outside prisons, but were hardly compensated for their efforts. Prison facilities were used as premises for conducting these activities meaning that contactors had to supply the prisons with necessary raw materials and equipment as well as supervisors to oversee the production processes. The convict lease system on the other hand involved letting prisoners out of the prisons during the day to go and work for private companies, and then return them to their cells in the evening (Lichtenstein, 2000). Some of the companies that participated in this arrangement included and not limited to miners, rail and road constructors and large scale farmers among others. As with the contract system, convicts in this system worked for free leaving the state and the businesses to enjoy the fruits of their labor. This form of arrangement came to being mainly after the liberation and banishing of slave trade, which left companies with a huge deficit in their work force. In the US for example, it is believed that this system started in Texas at around the year 1883 but after constant criticism, especially due to the inhumane treatment of convict laborers by their masters, it was abolished in the