Ugba 107: Slave Labor Vs a Second Chance

Carmen Zheng 10/2/15

UGBA 107

Slave Labor V.S. A Second Chance

Article Link: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/09/30/444797169/whole-foods-says-it-will-stop-selling-foods-made-by-prisoners

        Whole Foods has announced that by April of 2016, they will stop selling products made by prison laborers. Michael Silverman of Whole Foods said their decision was made after members of the shopping community expressed discomfort with purchasing groceries produced by inmates. From the headlines and article summaries, my initial thought was that I’m glad Whole Foods is taking steps to be more ethical. I have heard in the past they overcharge for products and I know the Whole Foods in Oakland specifically would not allow their employees to attend the Occupy demonstrations even if it was in their personal time. However, after reading the story, I think it is a very foolish step for Whole Foods and any company in general to cut off selling inmate products or partaking in their services because these job opportunities give them a second chance to start a new life after prison.

         Whole Foods is not the bad guy these headlines frame them to be. First of all, I imagined Whole Foods representatives walking into prisons and pointing at inmates, picking the strongest as their unpaid slave laborers. In reality, Whole Foods has a partnership with Colorado Correctional Industries, a department of the Colorado Department of Corrections that works to hire prisoners to milk goats and raise fish specifically for items such as cheese and tilapia. These are just two products out of many that Whole Foods sells. The Colorado Correctional Industries sells their cheese and tilapia to a separate dairy and seafood company. These companies happen to be suppliers for Whole Foods. I think an overall better headline for all the news articles is that Whole Foods is no longer buying products from particular companies that are made by prisoners. Whole Foods did not have any part in communicating with prisons at all! A lot of critics also fought this by arguing that it was illegal. Penal labor is actually legal, and unless it is excruciating physical labor, I do not think the 13th Amendment to the Constitution stating: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction” is at all immoral.