Catherwood LibraryILR School

Alabama inmates are holding a second nonviolent protest against the state?s prisons? conditions and the forced, unpaid labor they have to engage in. The protest is the second one within the past year by the Free Alabama Movement (FAM), a prison-based group which seeks to improve education programs, end overcrowding, and cull the ?free labor system?. Almost all inmates in the Alabama prison system work for little-to-no pay and many work inside the prison, doing laundry, maintenance, food preparation, and janitorial tasks. In other states, these jobs would normally be performed by state workers or outsourced to a third party. FAM was also responsible for the prison protest in January at a facility outside of Birmingham and has an active YouTube account documenting the conditions inside the prisons.