Slavery Is Alive and Well in America's Christian "rehab" Chicken Plants

[Act_of_Reparation]

Friendly Atheist

CAIRR, you see, is a modern-day convict lease program posing as a rehab facility, helping people overcome addiction. And this rehab includes working 40 hours a week, for free, in a dangerous chicken factory, where horrific injuries are commonplace, and convicts are not allowed time off to heal from them, nor entitled to worker’s compensation should they occur. The convicts, who live on site, are required to attend weekly Bible studies and counseling sessions — although the actual counseling sessions are frequently canceled when work needs to get done. Oh — and only one of the three on-site counselors are actually certified. Great program! Good job!

If you are wondering why someone would choose this instead of a traditional rehab facility, it’s because rehab is astoundingly expensive and beds are rare. It can take months for someone sentenced to rehab to actually get in, and given that most of the men who end up in CAIRR are very poor, they would be unlikely to be able to afford it. The state doesn’t want to pay for it either. Because — as with the convict lease programs — the state also does not have to pay for the room and board of the prisoners, they are saving themselves money.

CAIRR has been immensely popular in the chicken industry. Simmons Foods, the first major corporation to adopt the program, has relied so heavily on the it that they ended up laying off many of their paid workers.

Well, to be perfectly fair, the Bible does say slavery is OK.

[procon]

1. The Gospel of Chicken Guts. 😋 Extra Crispy with a side of scripture and lemon holy water. nt

[mountain grammy]

2. This is a really important story.

I saw it on another news site also.