A group of current and former Alabama prisoners are alleging that the state's prison labor practices amount to a "modern-day form of slavery," according to a complaint filed in federal court this week.
The plaintiffs include 10 men and women who worked during their time in Alabama's prisons and say they were trapped in a system in which "incarcerated people are forced to work, often for little or no money, for the benefit of the numerous government entities and private businesses." Those 10 people are all Black – a fact they emphasize underscores the disproportionate number of Black people held in the state's prisons.
