Prisoners in the US are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands (pt. 2)

Calvin Thomas, who spent more than 17 years at Angola, said anyone who refused to work, didn’t produce enough, or just stepped outside the long straight rows knew there would be consequences.

“If he shoots the gun in the air because you done passed that line, that means you’re going to get locked up, and you’re going to have to pay for that bullet that he shot,” said Thomas, adding that some days were so blistering hot the guards’ horses would collapse.

“You can’t call it anything else,” he said. “It’s just slavery.”

Louisiana corrections spokesman Ken Pastorick called that description “absurd.” He said the phrase “sentenced with hard labor” is a legal term referring to a prisoner with a felony conviction.

Pastorick said the department has transformed Angola from “the bloodiest prison in America” over the past several decades with “large-scale criminal justice reforms and reinvestment into the creation of rehabilitation, vocational and educational programs designed to help individuals better themselves and successfully return to communities.” He noted that pay rates are set by state statute.

Current and former prisoners in both Louisiana and Alabama have filed class-action lawsuits in the past four months, saying they have been forced to provide cheap – or free – labor to those states and outside companies, a practice they also described as slavery.

Prisoners have been made to work since before emancipation when slaves were at times imprisoned and then leased out by local authorities.