This is the part that shocks me. With nearly universal agreement that slavery is bad, how does the approximate equivalent continue?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/business/economy/labor-ma...
> Nearly every weekday morning for much of last year, Mr. Forseth would board a van at the minimum-security prison outside Madison, Wis., and ride to Stoughton Trailers, where he and more than a dozen other inmates earned $14 an hour wiring taillights and building sidewalls for the company’s line of semitrailers.
> After he was released, Mr. Forseth kept right on working at Stoughton. But instead of riding in the prison van, he drives to work in the 2015 Ford Fusion he bought with the money he saved while incarcerated.
> Work-release programs have often been criticized for exploiting inmates by forcing them to work grueling jobs for pay that is often well below minimum wage. But the Wisconsin program is voluntary, and inmates are paid market wages. State officials say the program gives inmates a chance to build up some savings, learn vocational skills and prepare for life after prison.
Any leads on such a thing?
I've long thought about the concept of guaranteed employment, like basically if people charitably said "look, if you cant find a job, I'll give you one doing a social good, like sweeping this street or chopping onions at a local foodbank" ...
For example - https://justdane.org/just-bakery/
A recent article from NPR https://www.npr.org/2021/11/23/1056856357/former-inmates-are...
Another bakery from a bit ago - https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/04/15/469942932/th...
One that is more on the farming skills - https://www.npr.org/2021/09/17/1037594879/this-prison-teache... and another one - https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/wisconsin/2017/08/... and then for youth https://doc.wi.gov/Pages/AboutDOC/JuvenileCorrections/GrowAc... -- though these are more about teaching while incarcerated rather than jobs once they're out.
Even aside from the "do they accept charity or donation" the thing to do is to look at having your place of employment to say... get bagels from Just Bakery or have get pizza from Down North Pizza to continue to support the community and the people working at such jobs.
I'd also check with the state DWD (or equivalent) - Department of Workforce Development. They're often part of the set of departments that work to reduce recidivism and may have suggestions for either "these companies employ ex-convicts" so that you can help by patronizing them along with "these organizations help with reentry" - and that would be an opportunity for donations.
For that example - https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/press/2019/190403_new_hope_frostma... and https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/press/210729-reecc-job-center.htm
Basically when it became no longer tenable to deny the fundamental humanity of an enslaved person, we found a way to deprive them of their humanity by criminalizing them. So now we don't have to feel bad for abusing them because they deserve it. It's not slavery, see, it's justice.
Or so the argument goes. It's disgusting.
The whole US prison system is corrupt to the core. It's one of the (if not the) ugliest stains on the entire country. It's a continuation of slavery by other means.