50 signatures reached
To: Rick Scott, Governor of Florida; Julie L. Jones, Secretary of Florida Department of Corrections
End Slavery in Florida's Prisons
The state of Florida and the Florida Department of Corrections should meet the prison strike demands of #OperationPUSH:
• End Prison Slavery. End the practice of selling prison labor to corporations and not paying prison workers for their work.
• Stop Jacking up Commissary Prices. Price gouging a captive market, with no income, is immoral.
• Reinstate Parole for Lifers and Long Timers. Without the possibility of parole, there is no incentive for rehabilitation or redemption. This is cruel and unusual punishment.
Why is this important?
The Florida state prison system is run like a 21st century slave plantation. Prisoners endure brutal conditions at the hands of guards and that state. That is why Florida has the highest inmate death rate in the US.
While this sounds horrific, big corporations are cashing in. Florida sells prison labor to corporations for a fraction of what they would pay employees covered by labor laws. And because Florida does not pay the prison workers, Florida's government directly profits from free slave labor.
This arrangement creates a perverse incentive to under-educate, under-employ and over-incarcerate large numbers of low-income Black bodies for the benefit of corporate profit. The state of Florida should not promote, manage and benefit from this arrangement.
Florida prisoners are on strike in what they are calling #OperationPUSH to fight for an end to prison slavery and humane conditions for prisoners.