A lawsuit filed by multiple private sector unions and Alabama Department of Corrections inmates would increase costs for taxpayers, according to multiple Alabama businesses.
The coalition of unions and inmates filed a lawsuit in the Middle District of Alabama in late 2023 to abolish Alabama’s inmate work-release program, which they describe as “a modern-day form of slavery.” Litigation in the case is ongoing.
Aaron McLeod, counsel for Bama Budweiser, one of the many private employers sued in the case, told 1819 News in a statement, “Plaintiffs’ class-action lawsuit in Council et al. v. Ivey et al. is an attempt by out-of-state lawyers to use the federal courts to force Alabama to give up its longstanding work-release program that requires certain convicts to perform work—for pay—while in jail. The outcome of this case if Plaintiffs win would likely be the curtailment if not the end of any kind of mandatory work by prison inmates.”
“That’s bad for Alabama for several reasons. First, incarceration isn’t cheap, and the Alabama taxpayer foots the bill for keeping criminals behind bars. All the Plaintiffs here are convicted of crimes, and tax money supplies housing, food, clothing, medical care, and the like for the duration of imprisonment. The work-release program helps lessen the burden on the taxpayer, because ADOC keeps 40% of the wages earned by inmates in work release, to defray the costs their crimes have imposed on the State,” McLeod said.
“Second, neither the law-abiding Alabamian nor the inmates themselves will benefit from shutting down work release. Getting work outside the prison walls helps inmates earn money for things they want while in jail and to support family — and it helps them get real-world experience for the day they get out of jail. We don’t want ex-cons being set free with no connection to any job prospect or useful experience. That’s bad for them and bad for us. Companies like my client are paying real-world wages to inmates for their labor, and that’s an opportunity inmates ought to want to keep, even if out-of-state lawyers convince them otherwise.”
Oddly, the lawsuit mainly relies on a 2000 anti-human trafficking law passed by Congress.
McLeod continued, “Finally, this lawsuit harms Alabama because it’s yet another effort by outsiders to use federal courts to interfere with what has always been, since the Founding, the concern of states, not the federal government—how to punish and imprison criminals. The statute Plaintiffs mostly rely on, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act or TVPA, was never meant to allow convicts to sit in jail cells and not be required to work to earn (part of) their keep. But Plaintiffs are asking the court here to be the first in America to rule that the TVPA’s broad language bans states from compelling inmates to do labor, even if it’s paid labor.”
“We think that’s a bad outcome, a result Congress never intended, and something that could be avoided if Congress would fix the statute to make clear what it never meant. A brief amendment explicitly excluding from the TVPA the labor of those convicted of crimes and serving their sentences, so long as the amendment is effective retroactively or effective as to any pending lawsuit or claim, would be enough. That would also align the TVPA with the Thirteenth Amendment, which already has an exclusion for labor as punishment for a crime,” McLeod said.
The Alabama private-employer defendants being sued in the lawsuit include:
- RCF, LLC d/b/a Gemstone Foods, LLC
- Koch Foods, LLC
- Ju-Young Manufacturing America, Inc.
- SL Alabama LLC
- Hwaseung Automotive USA LLC
- Progressive Finishes, Inc.
- C.B.A.K., Inc. d/b/a McDonald’s
- Southeast Restaurant Group-Wen LLC d/b/a Wendy’s
- Pell City Kentucky Fried Chicken, Inc. d/b/a KFC
- Masonite Corporation
- Cast Products, Inc.
- Southeastern Meats, Inc.
- Paramount Services, Inc.
- Bama Budweiser of Montgomery, Inc.
Plaintiffs also sued several public-employer defendants in Alabama:
- City of Montgomery
- City of Troy
- Jefferson County
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