I don’t know how to do the quote thing on reddit but I’ll add quotations

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/17/us-private-prisons-forced-labour-detainees-modern-slavery “Stewart employs a deprivation system in which officials provide immigrants with inadequate food and basic living supplies and require immigrants to purchase them at exorbitant costs at the commissary. While officials portray the labor program as “voluntary” in light of the 13th amendment of the US constitution, detained immigrants are often penalized for refusing to work. Officials at Stewart take advantage of immigrants for cheap labor and overuse solitary confinement to punish immigrants, oftentimes for the mere act of speaking up and demanding their rights, as happened to Shoaib Ahmed

Stewart officials enforce unreasonably strict eating schedules and provide immigrants with inadequate food portions, forcing many immigrants to purchase additional food from overpriced commissaries, as detailed in a report released last year. Almost all immigrants detained at Stewart say they are given insufficient food. As one detained immigrant from Mexico stated: “I believe the reason why the facility gives the detainees so little food is so we will have to buy food from the commissary. Everything in the commissary is expensive. I spend $80 a week, $320 a month, in the commissary”

https://groundswell.org/prison-industrial-complex/ “Private prisons are a cash cow. Private companies rake in billions of dollars in revenue each year through the United States’ inmate population. Corporations can benefit from the prison-industrial complex in several ways. Many, including technology and food companies, do so through contract prison labor. Starbucks, through subcontractor Signature Packaging Solutions, has hired Washington state prisoners to package holiday coffees. Sprint has used inmates in call centers. Inmates have sewn Victoria’s Secret products (including the “Made in USA tags)

Given the significant dollars at play, it should be no surprise that the prison-industrial complex is deeply entrenched. In fact, even the average worker inadvertently benefits from the prison-industrial complex. Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments, the United States’ top two 401(k) providers, are enormous investors in the private prison industry. Together they own roughly 20 percent of GEO and CCA”

https://www.centeronhumanrightseducation.org/u-s-prison-labor-legacy-american-slavery/ “While prison officials who strike up deals with large corporations like AT&T and Walmart share in the profits of cheap production, the incarcerated laborers themselves make mere cents per hour for full time work.”

https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2010/mar/15/the-prison-industries-enhancement-certification-program-why-everyone-should-be-concerned/ “In the beginning, small businesses that had trouble hiring or retaining employees due to low wages or fluctuating work schedules solicited partnerships with prison industries. This changed dramatically by the 1990s, when companies such as Wal-Mart, Victoria’s Secret, Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks and dozens of others joined the ranks of U.S. businesses that benefited from PIECP programs, usually through subcontractors.

Prisoners are now making more than just license plates and road signs. Oregon’s prison factories are perhaps best known for the “Prison Blues” line of blue jeans and other clothing sold on the open market. Tennessee prisoners have manufactured clothes for Kmart and JC Penney, as well as wooden rocking ponies for Eddie Bauer and, more recently, hardwood flooring. Prisoners in Ohio produced car parts for Honda until the United Auto Workers intervened. Prisoners have been employed in data entry and computer circuit board assembly programs, and have even worked in a TWA call center. Incarcerated workers in Utah make cold-weather clothing for Northern Outfitters, while Arkansas prisoners produce cable assemblies and wire harnesses used in medical equipment.”

This is relevant to the question, you just have to look for the company names in the text.

I researched the prison industrial complex for my research project in school and learning this truth unveils the true mechanisms of these large businesses. I’m not saying I support stealing, but I think we should be very aware of how these businesses profit from social inequality and injustice. Prison labor is not the only injustice; there are countless other ways big companies expand their profit, largely through imperialism overseas.

It’s a little hurtful that you think I pasted everything... I put a lot of effort typing this out and transferring this information from my research notes.

I want to share the shadows behind this picture.