First is the link – The affirmative admitted in cross examination
that prison labor would be a part of rehabilitation
Second LinkRehabilitation has empirically been used to justify slavery in
the form of prison labor.
Marie writes 1
This week’s readings from McClennan and Gottschalk give insight into the long history of political crisis, instability, conflict, and anxiety that has
contributed to today’s prison-based punitive system. Since its birth, the prison has been an official symbol of security, justice, and political power.
McClennan’s writing, The Crisis of Imprisonment, focuses on the ongoing debate over the morality of the prison system. Gottschalk’s writing, The
Prison and the Gallows, complements McClennan’s work nicely as it seeks to identify the political forces that have created our dependence on mass
imprisonment and other retributive penal policies. Both readings provide a history of the factors contributing to the formation of the current
that the United
States has a longstanding tradition of debate over the rights
and wrongs of crime and punishment. The Crisis of Imprisonmentfocuses on various themes
revolving around the history of the American penal system. These themes include the importance of
prison labor in 18th century system, practical and formal
reinvention and involuntary servitude, power dynamics within
the system, and the critical role of the abolition of contracted
prison labor in creating the modern prison system. These themes are
penal system as well as the anxieties it has created among the public. McClennan and Gottschalk prove
subheadings to the overarching message of McClennan’s work: that the American prison system of mass incarceration is an “unfree institution” in
a theoretically free society. McClennan primarily focuses on New York prisons in the 19thcentury as models of the changing state of the penal
Auburn Correctional Facility in Aubrurn, New York displayed a new cellhouse system of
imprisonment. The goal of the system was solitary confinement in order to force the spiritual labor of
reflection, repentance and reform. Also, silent congregate labor within
the Auburn cellblock stifled any efforts of prisoners to come together and revolt. Prisoners were isolated entirely from the “society” of
fellow human beings. The idea of reformed prisons influenced by Auburn was
to constrain criminals from further harming society and forcing
them to reflect on their actions while providing a steady
workforce. A relationship of dependency developed between jail keepers and prisoners; jailers and those private businesses became
system. In 1821,
¶
dependent on the labor and cooperativeness of those they were trying to imprison. This brings about the debate over the morality of selling prison
labor for private business interests was in question, or “the prison labor problem”. Critics claimed that forcing involuntary labor for minimal
wages denies certain individuals their right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.¶
And Slavery is immoral – subjugation of the other.
Miller writes
2
Slavery will always be found, in proportion to the extent and severity with which it prevails, to¶
INJURE THE MORALS of a people. That it tends to produce, on the one
1
(Nicole, staff analyst for nmumw, 2009- 02-23, http://nicolemarie.umwblogs.org/2009/02/23/the-tradition-of-the-prison-problem/
2
(Samuel Miller , April 12, 1797, Presbyterian Minister, in D. Gellman and D. Quigley, ed. (2003). ¶ Jim Cow New York, A Documentary History of Race and Citizenship 1777-1877. NY: New York¶ University Press, 44-46
haughtiness, a¶ spirit of domination, cruelty, and lewdness,
among the whites, appears probable, upon the slightest consideration of the subject, and is abundantly proved by
experience. And, on the other hand, that it has an equal tendency, to produce and cherish almost every species of vice,
hand,
¶
¶
among¶ the slaves themselves, none, I presume, will hesitate to admit. Should any have a remaining doubt ¶ whether this be the case, let
them compare the state of morals in those parts of our country, in¶ which slavery is either unknown, or exists in the most lenient form,
with that which is exhibited¶ in those states in which slaves are more numerous and more degraded.
And the DA turns the case—prison labor empirically increases
recidivism.
Bardsley writes 3
As an acceptable daily condition for African slaves and European indentures, slavery probably did not seem punishment severe enough
for convicted “villains.” Although he had trouble gaining support for the 1779 bill, virgina adopted most of his bills concerning crime and
After recidivism increased in other states which
displayed convicts at hard labor on public works, Jefferson
turned his attention to the European model of confined convict slavery…. In addition to
work-related injuries, illness, death and the daily degration of
meaningless, wageless labor, involuntary servitude result in
alienation which contributes to recidivism. As an Atlanta prisoner put it: It should not
be necessary to experience slavery in order to realize its evils and detriments to the subject. Slavery in any
manner breeds hatred and contempt for the master and the
work performed! For anyone to appreciate the necessity of
work, he/she must enjoy the fruit of his/her labor. To not be
allowed to do so cause one to develop a hatred and contempt
for work whenever confronted with it. I am positive that you will agree that this is not the
punishment by 1796.
attitude most people would like to see our kept returned to the streets with.
3
(Katherine, published author and “Prison Slavery” Febuary 1982 http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=zbTU7QxA7qoC&oi=fnd&pg=PP6&dq
1 NR Extension
And even if you don’t buy the 1NC evidence here’s some more—
Stanley writes4
During slavery, work was understood to be a punishment, and became despised as any punishment is despised. Work became hated as
does any activity which accomplishes no reward for the doer. Work became identified with slavery, and slavery with punishing work,
thus work came to be a most hated activity ... This is why I adamantly refuse to work within the prison system: I unequivocally refuse to
contemporary prison labor and antebellum
slavery may seem hyperbolic or even melodramatic, but in fact Shaka is historically accurate and
politically astute in linking prison, labor, and slavery. This is perhaps the
be a slave.¶ ¶ Shaka's comparison of
most productive means of thinking about the role of what I call "the correctional-industrial complex."¶ ¶ Historical Perspectives on
Prisons, Slavery, and Imperialism¶ ¶ It is important to recall that many of the first settlers of the "New World" were actually British,
Scottish, Irish, French, German, and Dutch convicts sold into indentured servitude. Selling "criminals" to the companies exploring the
Americas lowered the cost of maintaining European prisons (since they could remain relatively small), enabled the traditional elite to rid
themselves of potential political radicals, and provided the cheap labor necessary for the first wave of colonization. Indeed, as detailed in
there is a strong
historical relationship between the need for policing the unruly
working classes, fueling the military and economic needs of the
capitalist class, and greasing the wheels of imperialism with both
indentured servants and outright slavery. An early US example of this three-pronged relationship occurred in Frankfurt,
both Peter Linebaugh's The London Hanged and A. R. Ekirch's Bound for America,
¶¶
Kentucky in 1825. Joel Scott paid $1,000 for control of Kentucky's prison labor to build roads and canals facilitating settler traffic
westward into Indian lands. After winning this contract, Scott built his own private 250-cell prison to house his new "workers." In a
similar deal in 1844, Louisiana began leasing the labor of the prisoners in its Baton Rouge State Penitentiary to private contractors for
$50,000 a year. California's San Quentin prison illustrates this same historical link between prison labor and capitalism. In 1852, J.M.
Estill and M.G. Vallejo swapped land that was to become the site of the state capital for the management of California's prison laborers.
These three antebellum examples are not typical of pre-Civil War labor arrangements, however. The institution of slavery in the South
and the unprecedented migration of poor Europeans to America in the North provided the capitalist elite with ample labor at rock
Prison labor
became a more significant part of modern capitalism during
Reconstruction because the Civil War made immigration to America dangerous, left the U.S. economically devastated,
bottom prices. This left prison labor as a risky resource exploited by only the most adventurous capitalists .¶ ¶
and deprived capitalism of its lucrative slave labor. One of the responses to these crises was to build more prisons and then to lease the
slavery, and prison
labor thus appear as firmly wedded today as in the eighteenth
century. Indeed, the evidence presented above suggests that the short-term benefits the correctional-industrial complex offers
labor of prisoners, many of whom were ex-slaves, to labor-hungry capitalists… Capitalism,
to capitalists contrasts sharply with the long-term needs of a democratic society struggling with the questions of how to reduce violence,
how to redistribute social wealth, how to address its troubled racial history and how to enable more citizens -- regardless of race or class
-- to play productive and creative roles in their communities.
And prefer Marie as she is comparative in her analysis by looking at
the historical context and mentioning how specifically Auburn
justified prisoner slavery from prisoner reform.
4
(Scott, editor and staff analyst for jv, “Prison Labor, Slavery & Capitalism in Historical Perspective”http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/400605/stanley-scott/2012-02-13/ prison-labor-slavery-capitalism-historical-perspective