here we go a hidden intricate web links hundreds of popular food brands to work done by us prisoners a 2-year Associated Press investigation found that everything from grains meat eggs and milk had been grown harvested or produced by incarcerated people and their labor Finds Its way into the supply chains of some of the most recognized Brands and largest food companies in the world these types of agricultural programs are being run at prisons across the country dozens of them generate Revenue those are the green dots you see there on your screen one Penitentiary Penitentiary highlighted by
the AP is the state prison in Angola Louisiana a prison spokesperson there pushed back on the slavery comparison saying Angola has transformed with large-scale criminal justice reforms the official pointed to other programs like educational and spiritual options that prisoners can choose from NBC's Lester Holt met with one prisoner who took that route back in 2019 watch what is it like to serve time in the same prison that your father was executed in at first U it was embarrassing I just knew I had to do something different than just du time and die in prison I
was able to go to the Seminary I graduated with a a ba uh 3.91 average in 2013 uh I was selected to be a social Mentor joining me now is Robin McDow she and her colleague Margie Mason are the authors of this sweeping investigation Robin welcome thanks for joining us this evening the story that we just heard that's just one example right what did your investigation find on a broader scale about the experiences at Angola and prisons that have these agricultural programs across the country well we discovered um mainly that people are being forced to
work for pennies sometimes nothing and out nothing nothing at all um and that really these in our opinion are some of the most vulnerable workers because if they refuse to work they can be punished um that can mean being sent to solitary confinement it can mean mean losing the chance at parole um and they if they get hurt they really have very few protections at all they're not protected by basic things like the Fairly labor standards act um if they're injured and if they need if they're if they're killed um the prison labor reform act
makes it very difficult to Sue and we're hearing comparisons to slavery let's remind people what the 13th Amendment says about slavery quote neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as a punishment for Crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction Robin what can be done if this is enshrined in our constitution well I think people need to remember you know a lot of things that are legal are not necessarily right we can look directly at slavery efforts are underway now to make changes
to that um to the amendment and also similar language in state constitutions I guess that is a start um there are also efforts to try to get people who are working behind bars or as part of work release programs to at least get paid fairly and to be protected we know this investigation calls out really large companies like McDonald's Whole Foods General Mills do they know what is happening and have they responded to your reporting well just to make a distinction between how these goods are ending up in the supply chains of some of these
biggest products some big companies buy directly from Big prison farms and others through third party suppliers so I think it depends on how closely they are connected to the the actual initial purchase um whether or not they know did anything surprise you during your research as you conducted this investigation and where do you see this going in the future I think really what surprises surprised us most was the lack of protections if something went wrong um I think there are a lot of things to continue looking at in this area things that you know I
can't really talk about here but um but this is really a rich area for for um investigation Robin McDow we really appreciate your reporting on the thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media
