MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Step up to a fast-food counter in Alabama, and there's a chance that the person taking your order or flipping burgers in the back - that they are an incarcerated person on work release. They may earn paychecks, weekend passes home. But according to two years of investigative reporting by the Associated Press, they may also be exploited or abused. That labor force comes cheap for employers. It has generated hundreds of millions of dollars for Alabama, a state with a long history of profiting from the labor of folks with little or no choice in the matter. Margie Mason is an investigative reporter at The Associated Press and joins me now. Welcome.
MARGIE MASON: Thank you for having me.
KELLY: Well, let's start just by defining that term, prison labor. What kind of work are incarcerated people doing?
MASON: Well, today, they are working in the state of Alabama everywhere from McDonald's to Burger King to Wendy's, Holiday Inn, Best Western, even local beer distributor Bama Budweiser. They're also, you know, working for car part manufacturers that supply big automotive companies like GM, Ford, Honda, Toyota and others. They are doing public works along highways. So they're doing a whole lot of things. And you just might not realize how many places they're working and where they're working and that Alabama is profiting off of this work.
KELLY: And what's in it for those companies, the ones doing the hiring? What's in it for the state?
MASON: Well, the companies get a very reliable workforce that comes in. You know, they're being brought in in vans to and from their facilities every day at a time when we all know there's massive shortages right now for a lot of these companies. And so they're also able to get tax breaks in some cases. The state takes 40% off the top of all of the wages that come in, plus an additional $5 a day for transportation fees and $15 a month for laundry. And we calculated going back to 2000, just taking these fees, the state has brought in more than $250 million. And in the past five years alone, more than 500 companies have been essentially leasing out incarcerated workers from the state.
KELLY: So for incarcerated workers - I mean, I mentioned they can collect a paycheck. There are some other benefits. They also face risks, and I wanted to get right into that. What kind of risks?
MASON: Well, sometimes they're put to work in dangerous places, like poultry plants. We found one man was pulled into a machine and killed instantly at a poultry plant. They are out working alongside - working on the sides of roads. Oftentimes we'll see them driving by. We don't even maybe pay attention. And so our reporting that's more broad - looking at the whole series, what we found is oftentimes when incarcerated workers are hurt or killed on the job, it's very difficult for them. There's a dual system. They don't have the same rights and protections that other American workers have. So they might not be eligible for things like workers' compensation, disability benefits. They can't protest or strike if they have poor working conditions. And if they refuse to work, in some cases, they can be punished.
KELLY: This can also get tied up with parole. Is that correct? Based on your reporting, how does parole tie into the work release program?
MASON: Right. So Alabama last year - they only granted parole to about 8% of those who were eligible. And that number has more than doubled this year after public outcry. But, you know, we spoke to one man who gave us an example. He, for the past six years, has worked at numerous jobs on work release and was fired from KFC after they did not give him a raise following a year of work. In his words, he said that there were teenagers working the counter, you know, on weekends that were making more than him.
And so then when he came up for parole, he said that he was denied and that that was used against him - the fact that he was fired. And his argument is, if I'm safe enough to work 40 hours a week full time and I'm getting a home pass once a month to go stay with my family without any monitoring, how then am I being told by the parole board that I am too dangerous to be out in society?
KELLY: Although, it's interesting because you found that many advocates who work on issues of prison labor - that they are not arguing for it to be abolished. Why is that? What changes do they want to see?
MASON: Right. So I think a lot of the prisoner advocates are saying, look. Don't just take the jobs away because the jobs can be beneficial in terms of sometimes - depending on the job, they're able to provide skills. A lot of the incarcerated workers want to be outside. They want to be contributing to society, and they want to be earning a little bit of money that they can have when they leave so that they're not just leaving with nothing.
But the prisoner advocates are saying, you know, they need to be paid a fair wage. These jobs should be voluntary. No one should be forced to work against their will. And they're also, you know, making these arguments and saying that there should not be a dual system. The same rights and protections that are being given to any American worker should be provided to the incarcerated workers as well. And if things go wrong, if they're hurt or killed on the job, they should be permitted to sue.
KELLY: When you have taken your reporting to the state, to the Alabama Department of Corrections, what do they say?
MASON: So the Department of Corrections - they say that this work that they're offering - first of all, they say all the work release programs are voluntary. And they say that they're preparing incarcerated workers to return to society. But they're also saying that some of these prisoners are, you know, basically sentenced to life without parole. So essentially, they're not going to get out. And even though these are - these jobs are voluntary, they're also coveted because the system is so violent that most of the workers want to work in these programs that are attached to these minimum-security facilities. And if they refuse to work, they could then be sent back to the more violent facilities. I think Alabama last year, almost one person died every day.
KELLY: Margie Mason. Her story, along with fellow AP reporter Robin McDowell, is headlined "Alabama Profits Off Prisoners Who Work At McDonald's But Deems Them Too Dangerous For Parole." Margie Mason, thank you very much for your reporting.
MASON: Thank you so much.
KELLY: And a note - NPR has reached out to the Alabama Department of Corrections for comment ourselves. We have yet to hear back.
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