Workday Magazine (https://workdaymagazine.org/category/investigative/page/5/)
Sherburne has spurred the privatization of health care services for county jails, displacing county workers and leading to dangerous conditions for the incarcerated. The revenue is somewhat restricted leading to complaints from Sheriffs in contract negotiations.
Ezekiel “Zeke” Caligiuri remembers learning that inmate labor built St. Cloud Correctional Facility. Upon that discovery, he began seeing the walls of his cell in a different hue. Zeke observed that he “lived in a space that had been lived in for 100 years.” He grappled with the sobering reality that countless men before him had labored to sustain their own confinement and would continue to do so long after he was gone. As Zeke describes in his memoir, “I thought about a world that had no problem forgetting any of us ever existed.” Being forgotten behind concrete and steel bars also means that there is little observance and awareness of the treatment of prison laborers like Zeke.
The Department of Corrections (DOC) has a monopoly over an inmate’s shelter, work opportunities, and medical care. Since inmates live in their workplace, their living conditions are also their working conditions.
On Saturday night, wealthy patrons will enjoy fine dining at Wayne Kostroski’s “Taste of NFL.” Meanwhile, employees of his publicly funded business Franklin Street Bakery face exploitation and labor strife. Conditions are so severe that on January 11th workers survived carbon monoxide exposure and poisoning.