Hawes-Cooper Act 1929

History

Work by inmates in the earliest American penitentiaries was initially justified by the idea that hard labor was reformative in nature. Whether by individual labor in a solitary cell (as in Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary) or through congregate labor in enforced silence (as in the Auburn system), work was thought to be integral to the reformation of the criminal. Gradually, as a result of increased public and government attention to the costs of prison operations, many institutions began to examine ways whereby a prison could also achieve some degree of self-sufficiency.

During this time, many states begin to use prison labor in various ways. The “contract system,” where [Page 395]inmates worked within the prison manufacturing goods and merchandise for private concerns, was a popular way of making prisoners work. Under this system, the manufacturer supplied the raw materials and prison officials supervised the inmates. Because the private manufacturer purchased the goods at an agreed on price, this was also called the “piece-price system.” Also common, particularly in the South was the “lease system,” which began in Kentucky in 1825. In this system, prisoners were rented to contractors to work often outside the prison itself. They were generally poorly paid (if at all) and worked in unsafe and often squalid conditions.

Over time, it became increasingly clear that much of the free market labor could not compete with the lower cost of (and lower-priced) products manufactured in or outside of prison by forced inmate labor. By the late 1800s, prison reformers, who opposed the exploitation of inmates who were forced to work, and labor unions, fearing unfair competition, increased their opposition to prison labor and prison-made goods. In response, several states enacted new laws between the 1880s and 1920s to restrict or outright prohibit the sale of goods and merchandise made by inmates within their states. In 1887, for example, the New York Legislature, with the Yates Law, abolished all prison labor contracts and manufacturing, limiting prison industries to handicrafts that could only be sold within the state. New Jersey, Ohio, and Illinois eliminated these contracts as well and beginning in 1893, Pennsylvania passed a number of restrictive laws and by 1897, prison industry ceased to exist at all in that state.

With the increased use of the automobile by the average American and the necessity for more public access, road construction and maintenance provided other opportunities for inmate labor. Known as chain gangs in the South, prisoners were employed to build bridges, clear land, and repair buildings as well. By 1923, only Rhode Island prohibited inmates (primarily from the county jails) from working on public highways. The use of chain gangs diminished when soldiers returned from World War II and these jobs reverted to the public sector.

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