The Associated Press uncovered a workforce of prisoners producing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of agricultural products and goods by popular food brands.
But that might not change the way prisons use inmates as labor.
Prison work programs can be selective and often train people for jobs they can’t actually get on the outside, according to law professor Hadar Aviram.
“The Prison in Twelve Landscapes” director Brett Story on the economic consequences of mass incarceration.
It can’t buy freedom, but it bought one inmate some life-improving phone calls.
But food coming from a prison isn't necessarily a selling point.
Does prison labor represent unfair competition for private industry?
The people who do may never get a chance to actually see them in use.