Some nice comments about the prison labour article from those interested in this area (like these guys) and a good debate after it was re-posted on Liberal Conspiracy.
I was sent a link to Ben's Prisoner Blog posted on September 14 which talked about this issue.
Here's an extract (but I urge you to read the full piece):
"The days of treadmills are long gone. Their modern equivalent is 'contract services' - the Governor sells our labour to outside companies, and we get the smallest proportion of the income.
The largest employer in this prison is the company Bulk Hardware, who pay the Governor to force us to work an average wage of around 75p an hour. If we refuse to do this work, we are subjected to disciplinary procedures that include solitary confinement (http://www.againstprisonslavery.org/).
Such is the desperation of management to keep this contract with Bulk Hardware that nothing is allowed to get in its way - including the law and a semblance of decency. The Governor has targets for getting us out of our cells and in 'purposeful activity’ and the Bulk Hardware contract helps meet that target. It also brings him a nice top-up to his budget. Losing this contract would hurt."
While research the original article we emailed Bulk Hardware for a comment about its use of prison labour.
I received this email:
"In response to your e-mail of 27th July and in particular to the comments concerning this company: Bulk Hardware has no contractual arrangement with HMP Rye Hill.Bulk Hardware does not supply Homebase.Bulk Hardware formerly supplied Woolworths."
Since that struck me as a something of a non-denial denial I asked them:
"Can I just clarify whether Bulk Hardware have ever had a contractual arrangement with Rye Hill and whether the company has now, or in the past, had a contractual relationship with any other prison."
That was July 28 and, so far, there has been no answer. How do I reconcile Ben's post with what the company has told me?
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