By: Daniel J. Simms, Independent Journalist/Author
A monumental fraud scandal is happening across the United States. The scheme is reaping millions, even billions of dollars, from lowly vulnerable Americans' labor. Think of this, what if someone stole your wages on $3,197,400.00 worth of products that you laboriously produced? That is what happened to Johnny Perez and millions like him. Would you be furious if it happened to you? Adding insult to injury, what if U.S. Courts closed their doors to your wage theft lawsuit before you even filed it? Would you still fight on? Just because corrupt evil-minded elites in power have excused and licensed the fraudulent wage theft scheme does not make it right. Their time will come to face a higher Court, whether that is the Creator or the future critical eyes of our descendants, someday they will be adjudged guilty for their crimes. Nevertheless, would you still protest the indignity no matter the pretext or excuse the governmental elites had to steal your wages? Of course! Such ugliness is happening systemically to your fellow countrymen and countrywomen merely because they made a bad criminal decision. Virtually every adult American alive has made a bad criminal decision sometime in their lives. Whether knowingly or unknowingly. The vast myriads of laws in the books ensures that. Even if you do not realize your crime does not mean you have not committed it. Have you sent wrongful content online to receive something of value? Keep in mind "value" could mean virtually anything (i.e. influence, honor, or of course cash). That is wire fraud. Have you made false statements in a credit card or banking transaction? That is bank fraud. Have you inadvertently, or intentionally, misplaced a digit on your taxes? That is tax fraud. They are all felonies. And they could all subject you to potentially years of enslavement.
Johnny Perez was incarcerated in the State of New York. While there he worked diligently for more than four years at a prison work factory. He made hundreds of bedsheets daily. While there he rose up the ranks to become one of the highest paid prisoners at an atrocious thirty-two cents (.32¢) an hour. Which is considered slavery or involuntary servitude. Such slavery occurs daily across the country.
Every prison, Federal and State, has institutionalized slavery. Institutionalized policies have "legalized" the widespread fraudulent slavery wage theft conspiracy. Legalization has not made it lawful however. There are higher and more powerful timeless natural, moral, and ethical laws which declare stealing wages from workmen, or workwomen, as crimes against humanity. The politicians and governmental officials, Federal and State, may try to explain their wicked slave scheme as good public policy. Yet when they discuss the same slave wage theft occurring elsewhere, such as China, they demonstrate their true culpability. They accuse China of human rights violations for prisoner slave labor. While the U.S. has more prisoner slaves than any government today or in all of history. It is blatant hypocrisy.
The slavery scheme is even more repugnant when you understand the full scope of theft. Perez produced approximately three hundred and sixty bed sheets daily. In his four years as a slave, he produced 525,600 individual bed sheets. The bed sheets are sold under the "Corecraft" brand. They sell them in packets of a dozen to state agencies, schools, and other public agencies at an astounding seventy-three dollars ($73.00) apiece. Perez's labor directly profited the Corecraft company $3,197,400.00. While he made approximately $2,662.40 for all four years of enslavement. It is appalling.
“You do the math, and you're like, I made these people millions of dollars...this is really wrong," stated Johnny Perez, while being interviewed for an article in The Nation, published on March 10, 2023.
It is extremely wrong and unfair. Yet all Corecraft had to say on their website regarding prisoner slave labor was, "We employ incarcerated individuals to produce goods while preparing them for release by teaching them work skills, work ethic, and responsibility." www.Corecraft.gov.
Such a grossly out of touch false assertion is readily apparent upon any unbiased look at the data. Astoundingly eighty two percent of Americans that get incarcerated recidivate within ten years. Sadly, sixty three percent of them recidivate within three years. Therefore, empirically prisoner slavery does NOT increase work skills, work ethics, or responsibleness. It also does NOT protect public safety. And it surely does NOT help prisoners’ reentry into society. Slavery has always been and always will be heinous and harmful to those it inflicts. Hate begets more hate. Evil begets eviler. It is clear and unambiguous that slavery was a depraved and vile practice back in the nineteenth century, which is evident through a Civil War to end it, and it is likewise just as bad today. Limiting slavery to those that commit criminal offenses is merely another way to steal labor. It is an atrocity.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) estimate 1.2 million Americans are enslaved across the country. Yet that estimation is low since it did not include those confined in jails, immigration facilities, juvenile institutions, and military brigs). See: Captive Labor, ACLU (June 2022). Most likely the number of slaves is at least a million Americans or more. Nevertheless, taking that potential pool of 1.2 million slaves, extrapolating their labor productive output, and the wage theft is astronomical amounting to a stunning $798,720,000.00 dollars per year. Such a shocking wage theft is chilling. Especially knowing how incredibly damaging it is to the prisoners and their families.
Years later, upon Perez's release, you can imagine his outrage when he seen the Corecraft bedsheets being sold. The exploitation he felt must have been palpable. Thankfully Perez took the harmful damage he suffered and transformed it for good. Becoming the Director of the U.S. prison program at the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. Organizations such as his are greatly needed to combat the U.S. government's overreaching mass enslavement system. Slavery is torture. Compelling anyone by force, coercion, or duress, to labor for any entity, whether governmental or private, without being paid a minimum wage, is a form of torture. Period. Their labor is their property. Period. Therefore, taking their property through the guise of public policy is a form of governmental torture.
Currently Federal and State prisons, including my prison in the State of Washington, uses opaque supply chains and dark public/private corporations to funnel the products into the economy. Washington State has an entity named Correctional Industries, that systemically exploits prisoner slave labor to make countless products and services. Every State has at least one such entity.
"All major retailers in the U.S. have prison labor in their supply chains. They just don't know it, and they don't know it because they choose not to know it," stated Noam Perry, of the American Friends Service Committee. Prisoner slave products are hidden behind secretive supply chains and governmental policies meant to conceal their origins. Is this a telltale sign of a guilty mind? Why would they hide their product's origin? Unless it was blood product. Just like blood diamonds. Produced through slavery, exploitation, and force. There should be National boycotts against such clear immoral and unethical wage thievery. Retailers should not be forgiven or excused for carrying or selling any prisoner slave blood products. Whether it is willful or inadvertent does not matter. Willful blindness is not a valid excuse.
Grassroots organizations such as DefundDOC.net and many others are finally rising to challenge the status quo. We are fighting not only for ourselves but for you and your descendants as well. Collectively it will be our backs, or the backs of our descendants, that will feel the yolk of slavery unless we rise up now. So, we must organize against the tyranny of evil and corrupt policies, practices, and customs.
DefundDOC.net is demanding the abolition of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Amendment was a bad decision when it was ratified, and it is still bad today. Many accuse lawmakers of ratifying it as a concession to mollify the racist Civil War South. No matter how it came to be added to the constitution it must be repealed. Additionally, prisoners should be protected under the Fair Labor Standards Act just like every other American. It is inequitable to be stigmatized and disenfranchised so viciously that the government can torturously steal your labor with impunity. That is wrong in anyone’s playbook. But especially in the playbook in a Country that favors itself a bastion of human rights and "the world's policeman." Many fought valiantly to end slavery during the Civil War. To see their sacrifice led the government to become the biggest Slaveholders and wage theft conspirators in all of human history is disgraceful. It is time we exposed and shamed the people, public or private entities, and governmental officials engaged in this modern-day slave trade.
You can support this social justice mission by simply subscribing to our free podcast and blog. All new subscribers will receive a free digital copy of one of my two books: "DEFUND DOC: TURNING ALL PRISONS INTO TREATMENT AND CAREER CENTERS," or "THE ART OF LIVING: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN LIFE AND BUSINESS, I LEARNED IN PRISON." Buying either book on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, or other book retailers would cost you over ten dollars. So, this is an amazing free offer!
You can also help our cause by getting the limited time offered three digital book special supporter bundle: "HOPELESS IN SEATTLE: A FOSTERKID'S MANIFESTO," "THE ART OF LIVING," and "DEFUND DOC." All three books for the price of one book on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, or other book retailers. At fourteen dollars and ninety-nine cents ($14.99) it is unbelievably low. We will take the loss, however, to share this awesome social justice message with you and invite you into our mission of reform.
Supporters encouraged us to create custom branded designed collections of items to sell online. So we did it. Please find the online stores that carry the Defund DOC brand: Etsy.com, Tiktok.com, and of course on our website DefundDOC.net. We are actively seeking new ways to promote and bring attention to this mission. You were going to buy sweatshirts, tee shirts, mugs, and other items, so why not get them from us? Every penny of profit goes towards furthering this overdue social justice mission. Remember becoming a supporter is merely an insurance policy. Statistically speaking you, or one of your descendants, will be ensnared in these corrupt and evil mass incarceration or mass supervision systems. Therefore, you are contributing towards a future where prisoner slavery is a part of the ugly past. Where all prisons are turned into treatment and career centers. And meaningful sentencing reform occurs. Supporting ensures your name will be written in glory and history! Just like those that fought to end slavery!
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