When inmates choose to participate in the strike, particularly the hunger strike component its essential that we at the very least we choose alternatives to purchasing from companies who participate in the prison industrial complex by exploiting prisoners’ labor by paying them pennies on the dollar for the work that they do. When prisoners choose to boycott the prison system that means that no money can move within it. An inmate’s only choice when they’re receiving food, products or services is support the system. Many prisoners cringe at that reality. It’s easy for them to shell out hundreds of dollars a month on music, hygiene products, commissary, clothing and other items. These are expenses that add up while they’re incarcerated every single month. Prisoners recognize the direct correlation between their spending and the survival of the system that oppresses them, which is why they’ve called for a boycott all spending within the prisons. Imagine if every single prisoner we’re to unify in this, the prison system would not make any money for the entire period that prisoners agreed upon.
On the outside we have the privilege of having a wide range of alternatives. The only thing that convinces us to go to Walmart instead of a different store its convenience. Whether it’s because Walmart is right across the street or because you can shop there to your groceries at the same time as your furniture, toys and school supplies; we need to recognize that these conveniences don’t matter. A mindset that refuses to support a system that oppresses whole populations of people doesn’t s exist and fails to qualify as an option for me. It’s imperative that we are intentional about the decision that we make with our dollar in this society based on capitalism framed as a republic. As a capitalist democracy meaning not only are decisions made through the political process of voting on proposed legislation by representatives, but decisions within the society are made by which direction money is going in.
In relation to the decision-making process through policy changes, many of the decisions that affect the lives of whole segments of people within our population are made by those who are not at all affected by the policies and they’re creating or voting on. It is imperative that we bring prisoners into the conversation, especially relating to Criminal Justice Reform if we actually want to see a change in our system that is substantial. Unfortunately, the phrase criminal justice reform has become watered down and this is because we are not allowing the most effected to contribute to the policy making process. The right to participate in the political sphere is parallel to participation in the economic sphere. Prisoners contribute to our nation’s status as a world power just as slaves have always been an essential aspect of America’s world power status. This was due to the fact that our country was able to make exponential developments as their largest labor force was completely unpaid. This is the exact same case today as we have millions of people that are paid little to nothing for the work that they do and the work that they do is critical to the functioning of our society. We highly value the work that every prisoner is doing from making license plates for our vehicles, to de-manufacturing products for megastores and constructing furniture for universities. We value their work which can be seen in the simple fact that countless departments and companies that are exploiting their work make billions of dollars: Walmart is a leading Megastore, every single car in the United States for part to have a license plate and Starbucks is the number one coffee shop in the nation. it’s evident that we value prisoners work beyond what we’ve been able to realize or acknowledge. Today we must refuse to live ignorant to the invaluable work that prisoners do for our country. We must understand that prisoners do valuable work and should be valued enough economically to be paid fairly and participate politically. It is completely unjust and repressive for us to exploit such a huge segment of our population, building exponential wealth while starving them financially and also denying them the right to participate in the decision-making process of the country. We need to rethink the way that we assign voting privileges to people in our society, we need to allow the privilege of voting in a democracy to be the right of every adult human being that lives within that democracy regardless of their past or present because they are essential to our future.
