ABSTRACT
Inmates enslaved in correctional facilities1 in the U.S. perform many different kinds of concrete labor at many different sites inside and outside the prison walls. Although this study analyzes two of these sites, commodity production and prison household production, it is not a comprehensive analysis of the class dynamics within prison.2 For example, only the slave labor is analyzed, not the labor of the guards or other correctional staff, which make up the group termed prison authorities. This refers to the group of people who work within the Department of Corrections in a given federal or state jurisdiction, including the warden and the warden’s staff, the correctional officers and other personnel who work at a given prison, as well as various different administrators and staff who work in the Department of Corrections but may not be in direct contact with inmates. As noted earlier, the individual with the most official power here is the head of the department of corrections in the given state or other jurisdiction.
