Current Events > Arkansas Senate Majority leader basically uses slave labor

(+) Yeah! (+)

@Antifar posted a similar story about a drug rehab facility in Oklahoma recently.

http://ualrpublicradio.org/post/top-arkansas-politician-uses-labor-rehab-work-camp#stream/0

Courts from across Oklahoma and Arkansas send men to Drug and Alcohol Recovery Program, known as DARP, as part of a growing effort to divert offenders from overcrowded prisons and into treatment. But a recent investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting found that the rehab and others like it are little more than lucrative work camps for private industry.

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At DARP, defendants receive little actual addiction treatment. Instead they work full-time jobs in factories and chicken processing plants. The companies pay a discounted rate to the rehabs for the labor, according to a lawsuit filed in Arkansas last week against DARP and a similar program, Christian Alcoholics & Addicts in Recovery, known as CAAIR. The men make nothing.

The unpaid work may violate state labor laws and the 13th Amendment ban on slavery, according to legal experts. Since Reveals investigation, CAAIR has become the subject of two other class-action lawsuits and three government investigations. CAAIR is modeled after DARP.

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In response to the lawsuit, Hendren told the Arkansas Times that he was proud to give kids in drug rehab programs a second chance.

While they are not employees of our company we pay the program for every hour they work consistent with all state and federal laws just as we do our other employees. We have also hired some to become full time employees upon completion of the program. It has been rewarding to see some of these kids turn their lives around, he said.

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As of 2011, Hendren Plastics employed about 50 people, according to a local news story. Workers told Reveal that at least 20 men from DARP worked at Hendren Plastics at any given time.

Mark Fochtman was sent to DARP by an Arkansas drug court, according to court filings. At Hendren, he worked along a production line at the factory that melted plastic into dock floats and boat slips, according to an affidavit filed along with the lawsuit.

The environment was very caustic working around melted plastics, Fochtman said in the affidavit. Because of the work environment, the turnover rate during my time was high.

If DARP workers got hurt on the job and couldnt work, they were often kicked out of the program and sent to prison, according to interviews with former participants, as well as the lawsuit. Others worked through the pain.

Because of these threats, myself and other residents worked through sickness and injury to avoid being sent to prison, Fochtman said.

Dylan Willis also worked at Hendren. He said his face, arms and legs are still covered with burn marks from molten plastic that shot out of a machine. DARP managers shrugged off his blisters as merely cosmetic, he said.

They just gave me some Neosporin and told me Id be all right, Willis said.
In 2014, the Arkansas Department of Community Correction revoked DARPs license to house parolees after discovering the program refused to pay workers minimum wage, a violation of state standards.

Community Correction Director Sheila Sharp said other programs provide the same services as DARP while paying participants.

Arkansas prisons are no longer supposed to send parolees to the program. Courts, however, continue to send defendants there.

In a previous interview with Reveal, DARP President Raymond Jones said his rehab program keeps the money to pay for services. If participants complete six months, they are eligible for a gift of at least $500.

His program is an opportunity to help people get their lives back on track, that cannot find an open bed at a rehab or a state and federal funded facility, he said.
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I still think about that fucking rehab plant story.
https://www.revealnews.org/article/they-thought-they-were-going-to-rehab-they-ended-up-in-chicken-plants/
This is more of the same, basically. The 13th amendment issues come in because some of the people at these camps haven't been convicted yet (if they will be at all).

Here I'd note that Arkansas politicians have a rich history of using unpaid prison labor, and I remember hearing of similar practices in other states' governors' mansions
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/06/the-clintons-had-slaves
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Being forced to work in plastics manufacturing or meat processing for $500 per 6 months seems worse than working at the governors mansion for several reasons to me, but I don't think we disagree here
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Antifar posted...

I still think about that fucking rehab plant story. This is more of the same, basically. The 13th amendment issues come in because some of the people at these camps haven't been convicted yet (if they will be at all).

Here I'd note that Arkansas politicians have a rich history of using unpaid prison labor, and I remember hearing of similar practices in other states' governors' mansions
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/06/the-clintons-had-slaves

The governors mansions part was pretty widespread too IIRC.

Sad how unsurprising this story is. Between this and privatized prisions we pretty much knew this for decades now. Glad it's getting more looks finally.
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