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Comment by r3trohack3r | Hacker News Reader

A reminder that Tyson is abusing the legal system to force people in the American south into working in their chicken plants for free: https://revealnews.org/article/they-thought-they-were-going-...

I don't know every brand that uses Tyson products, but when I discover something is coming from a Tyson factory I stop purchasing it.

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This is pretty awful. I can almost guarantee that if you look into the campaign donors for these judges the chicken farms will there. It reminds me of the judge that used to send kids to prison because he was getting a kick back.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/judges-sent-children-pr...

Sometimes those we trust to enforce justice are the biggest criminals of all and we give them essentially unlimited power.

Abuse of power to this extent and the ruining of so many lives should be a death penalty offence.

They produce around 20% of the beef, pork, and chicken in the United States. They also have a range of food products under brands like Tyson, Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, BallPark, Wright, Aidell’s, and State Fair.

I find it more shocking that, despite the terrible reported conditions at the plant, most people stayed there because it was preferable to prison. If that is preferable to their prisons...

I'd rather go to prison. Take the gamble, at least prison has time off for good behavior and over crowding. This program looks like its designed to drain you of everything for as long as possible.

Pretty sure refusing to work when given the option is itself not considered "good behavior." It's one of the ways they coerce inmates into working those $0.12/h jobs.

You can get a shot for refusing to work. This can impact good time and will impact your points. Higher points mean you get sent to a higher security (which ironically means less secure/safe for the inmate) facility.

It's even worse than that. In Texas, refusing to work essentially puts you in solitary confinement! [1]

[1]: https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/faq/cid.html#work

The taste is enough reason to never eat a Tyson chicken.

you don't like chicken that smells like gym socks? i thought i was the only one

If it was free how are the operating costs covered?

I think you misunderstand - prisoners and people that are "diverted" from prison to rehab are being sent to chicken processing plants as part of their sentences. The taxpayer is paying the bills to these institutions and then Tyson is getting labor for free.

ahh, the most under talked about part of modern slavery. "But they got arrested for a good reason, so of course they need to do labor to repay society". Yup, exactly the kind of narrative a private prison incentivized to detain people wants to spread.

Shame it will take a much more radical change to how people view prisons to truly break this mentality.

Thankyou for sharing this.

Another solid reason to boycott meat.

Wow, this is atrocious

I only saw Simmons Food Inc here, does Tyson do it too?

You seem to have read the article, so it’s odd you didn’t do a search:

“Simmons signed on. Later, Crystal Lake Farms and Tyson Foods Inc. did, too.”

This is horrific.

>McGahey was 23 with dreams of making it big in rodeo, maybe starring in his own reality TV show. With a 1.5 GPA, he’d barely graduated from high school. He had two kids and mounting child support debt. Then he got busted for buying a stolen horse trailer, fell behind on court fines and blew off his probation officer.

Yeah, you weren't going to make it big either in rodeo or anything else.

Id suggest reading the rules of this site and posting something more productive next time.

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