![]() The suit alleged that workers were threatened with longer sentences, solitary confinement and transfers for those who refused to work. Only 15% of the Santa Rita Jail population had been sentenced for a crime at the time of June 2019. The Thirteenth Amendment prohibits slave labor except “as punishment for crime,” which has consistently been interpreted as meaning that convicted prisoners could be worked free of wages. The state is allowed to deduct taxes, room and board, and restitution from wages as long as it does not exceed 80% of the total. “We speculate that it’s at least millions.”Ĭalifornia passed a prison labor law in 1990 that allows private companies to use prison labor as long as prisoners are paid comparative wages (and overtime) as non-incarcerated workers. “Santa Rita and therefore the county are stealing the wages that have been earned as a result of the work of the prisoners,” stated Siegel. The suit alleges that the company “receives an economic windfall as a result of the uncompensated labor of prisoners confined in Santa Rita Jail.” The kitchen also prepares meals for Aramark’s contracted services with Amador and San Joaquin counties. ![]() The Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California, uses prisoner labor in its industrial kitchen to prepare meals for Aramark. ![]() “Rather, it was forced labor for the profit of Aramark.” “The work plaintiffs performed was not a part of daily housekeeping duties in the jail’s personal and communal living areas,” reads the complaint. The county contracts with Aramark, a $16.2 billion private enterprise, to provide meals for the county’s jail populations at $94.5 million a year. Represented by attorney Dan Siegel, eight named plaintiffs contend their unpaid kitchen jobs amounted to slave labor. Share: Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on G+ Share with emailĬurrent and former prisoners at Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County, California, filed a class action lawsuit on Novemagainst the county, Sheriff Gregory Ahern, and Aramark Correctional Services for violating a California prison labor law, the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. ![]()
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