The state of Mississippi has revived an old method of punishing the poor and extracting cheap labor out of workers, often with no end in sight for the victims of their scam.
In Mississippi, workers can be sentenced to prison indefinitely if they don’t pay debts. The state has four “restitution centers,” or debtor’s prisons, where people are forced to live when they are not working their state-mandated minimum wage jobs. The money they earn from their jobs is then taken by the prisons. Most of the money they earn is not paid to those they owe debts to but to the prison itself for “room and board,” transportation to their jobs, and healthcare. For many, this means their sentences just get longer the longer they are there.
All of these workers are forced to work for private companies like fast food chains, slaughterhouses, or processing plants, or for rich people hiring landscapers or repair services. They are under severe restrictions while at work to keep them from contacting their families. People who cannot work end up in prison indefinitely, racking up debt while unable to pay any of it down. Meanwhile, at the debtors’ prison, they are forced to perform unpaid labor in the form of “chores.”
The state provides intentionally confusing records to the inmates so that it is unclear how much they owe or how long they will be in prison.
Sometimes these debts are connected to a crime, though for many, their crimes were not paying court fees or other punishments by the state for being poor. Most are for probation violations. In the majority of cases, the actual prison sentence associated with the crimes would be shorter than the debtors’ prison sentences. Many people are in debt because of plea bargains they were coerced to agree to.
Mississippi is the only state to continue this practice. Three judges in the state are responsible for a third of these sentences. Like with most incarceration programs, Black people are disproportionately targeted for these debtors’ prisons (nearly half of the workers are Black); it affects the poor far more than the rich, who can rely on their wealthy families, friends, or connections to get them out of any trouble.
This is not a tool for rehabilitation or a method of paying off the victims of crimes—most of the “crimes” had no victims—the debts were imposed by the courts, knowingly targeting those who cannot pay. Meanwhile, the rich continue to rack up their own debts and escape through bankruptcy or bailouts. Meanwhile, the rich are destroying peoples’ lives by raising the costs of housing, healthcare, and other necessities. Debt is a trap designed to control the poor.
The Workers Group calls for all court and criminal fees to be waived in Mississippi and for the closing of these four debtors’ prisons. This racist, predatory practice must come to an end.