Tuesday, July 24, 2018
The "Hellhole on the Brazos"
Yesterday, I came across a fascinating and deeply troubling story on CNN. Workers excavating ground for a school came across 95 unmarked graves.
Experts have concluded that the bodies were the remains of former slaves who were forced-- after emancipation--to work in the "convict-leasing system" that created an incentive to convict black men of crimes, so they then could be leased out by the state to work under horrific conditions. The Sugar Land plantations that leased prisoners were so bad they gained the nickname "The Hellhole on the Brazos."
We don't have that form of prisoner leasing any more, not exactly. We do pay prisoners shockingly low wages (ie, 47 cents an hour) to work in difficult conditions. We do create incentives to lock up far more people than we need to. We do disabuse the idea that what we value is liberty and equality in the way we construct our criminal justice system.
Tomorrow I get to talk about that, just a little. I look forward to it.
Experts have concluded that the bodies were the remains of former slaves who were forced-- after emancipation--to work in the "convict-leasing system" that created an incentive to convict black men of crimes, so they then could be leased out by the state to work under horrific conditions. The Sugar Land plantations that leased prisoners were so bad they gained the nickname "The Hellhole on the Brazos."
We don't have that form of prisoner leasing any more, not exactly. We do pay prisoners shockingly low wages (ie, 47 cents an hour) to work in difficult conditions. We do create incentives to lock up far more people than we need to. We do disabuse the idea that what we value is liberty and equality in the way we construct our criminal justice system.
Tomorrow I get to talk about that, just a little. I look forward to it.
