Why are for-profit US prisons subjecting detainees to forced labor? | Azadeh Shahshani
(The Guardian United States)

Private prisons have for years enriched themselves by exploiting detained immigrant labor. They must be held accountableIn 2017, officials at the Stewart immigration detention center in Georgia placed Shoaib Ahmed, a 24-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh, in solitary confinement for encouraging fellow workers to stop working.Ahmed, who was paid 50 cents per hour to work within the facility, was upset because his $20 paycheck was delayed. His punishment was solitary confinement for 10 days, where he was subject to deplorable conditions - a cell with no access to other workers, only an hour of out of cell time per day and showers only three times per week. Detailing the impact that severe isolation has had on his mental health, Ahmed said: `I think the segregation will kill me.` Continue reading...