HOUSTON — The kitchen of the detention center here was bustling as a dozen immigrants boiled beans and grilled hot dogs, preparing lunch for about 900 other detainees. Elsewhere, guards stood sentry and managers took head counts, but the detainees were doing most of the work — mopping bathroom stalls, folding linens, stocking commissary shelves.

As the federal government cracks down on immigrants in the country illegally and forbids businesses to hire them, it is relying on tens of thousands of those immigrants each year to provide essential labor — usually for $1 a day or less — at the detention centers where they are held when caught by the authorities.

This work program is facing increasing resistance from detainees and criticism from immigrant advocates. In April, a lawsuit accused immigration authorities in Tacoma, Wash., of putting detainees in solitary confinement after they staged a work stoppage and hunger strike. In Houston, guards pressed other immigrants to cover shifts left vacant by detainees who refused to work in the kitchen, according to immigrants interviewed here.

Every day, about 5,500 detained immigrants work in the nation’s immigration detention centers. Some are paid a dollar a day; others earn nothing. The locations shown are facilities that the federal government reimburses for this work.

The federal authorities say the program is voluntary, legal and a cost-saver for taxpayers. But immigrant advocates question whether it is truly voluntary or lawful, and argue that the government and the private prison companies that run many of the detention centers are bending the rules to convert a captive population into a self-contained labor force.

Last year, at least 60,000 immigrants worked in the federal government’s nationwide patchwork of detention centers — more than worked for any other single employer in the country, according to data from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE. The cheap labor, 13 cents an hour, saves the government and the private companies $40 million or more a year by allowing them to avoid paying outside contractors the $7.25 federal minimum wage. Some immigrants held at county jails work for free, or are paid with sodas or candy bars, while also providing services like meal preparation for other government institutions.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/us/us ... 00000&_r=2

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Except they're not "Prisoners" but detained immigrants.

Awaiting deporting? Catch them and just ship them out of the country. They are criminals and have broken America laws by invading our country.

On the other hand in America, the land of the not so free, prisons and jails are a corporate growth industry. Why do you think America has more people per capita in jails/prisons that any other country on earth (2,200,000) and the police are being militarized? It all about power and control for the attorneys/judges/bar associations that actually run America and the corporations. Obama-Iben-Lying is an attorney, so is his wife. Hillery (I didn't kill Vince Foster and Whitewater never happened) Clinton is an attorney and so was Billy her co-president, as are Congressmen and loads of politicians.

What do you call 1000 attorneys dead on the bottom of the ocean? A good start.

A ship sank and the sharks eat everyone but the attorneys, way? Professional courtesy.

What do you call it when a ape and an attorney mate/produce children? Nothing, there are some things even an ape won't do.

The U.S.' incarceration rate is astounding in light of its crime rates. Doesn't seem to be a deterrent.

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Years ago when I ran an INGO, I looked into getting Cambodian inmates a skill/job from behind bars. We were willing to pay them a wage in return for them doing the job. Also on release we would give them a full time job if they took part in the scheme behind bars and kept their nose clean (pun intended).

The RCG was all up for it, the CCC (NGO forum) was behind it, even the ILO thought it a good idea. Unfortunately, news of it got out before we had put the finishing touches to it and the housewives of America went nuts with a load of misinformation. Meant the buyer (a massive US chain) pulled out as it was just too toxic even if it was a good for all.

Shame but it proved to me that some good ideas are just a little too early for your average American.

Garry.Crabtree wrote:Shame but it proved to me that some good ideas are just a little too early for your average American.

I agree. The concept of 'The world is round' has still to gain acceptance in the fundamentalist Bible Belt.

Fundamentalist in any religion are crazy, this included Islam and Christianity. My favorite quote is from a Travel author. He calls them "God Fobbers." In America the Bible Belt is just below the Rust Belt (google it.)

Sailorman wrote:Fundamentalist in any religion are crazy, this included Islam and Christianity. My favorite quote is from a Travel author. He calls them "God Fobbers." In America the Bible Belt is just below the Rust Belt (google it.)

Like I said, somethings are just a little too early for some people.