this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
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My understanding, which may be out of date, is that goods made in prisons aren't generally sold (they go to supply the prisons themselves, or other government programs), so it isn't a commercial supply chain, and inmates who work are supposed to be volunteers. So it's likely to slither through based on one or the other of those things.
Your understanding is hella wrong. Also is it any better if they make stuff for the military industrial complex? You're also wrong about supposed to be voluntary. Sure it's voluntary, but inmates gets punished one way or another if they don't.
https://www.mashed.com/785722/whole-foods-used-prison-labor-for-this-product-until-2015/
https://www.nycfoodpolicy.org/prison-labor-is-remarkably-common-within-the-food-system/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_labor_in_the_United_States
It's literally in the 13th amendment, slavery is legal for inmates.
I never claimed anything I said held true for the USβthe prison system is completely different there. Canadian prisons have Issues, but they tend to be about overcrowding and such, not the prison-industrial complex that exists south of the border.
Recently, we've even stopped stripping prisoners of the right to vote in federal elections.
But is there labour from American prisons in Canadian supply chains?
Possibly (it's impossible to tell from outside the companies commissioning the goods where specific supply lines go), and yes, the law should be applied against companies using foreign prison labour unless it's been specifically worded to dodge that case. As for whether it has been so worded, well, I'm not a lawyer, but I can't see why it would be favourable for the legislature to do so, since they're not likely to get votes, Canadian jobs, or even much goodwill from the US out of allowing that kind of loophole.
That being said, someone will probably have to bring a court case to get the law enforced against firms using US prison labour specifically. I'd expect that to take anything from a few years to a couple of decades. Once it gets to that point, I expect that the courts will apply the law as written (which may or may not be the law as intended).