Convict lease

Convict leasing was a form of forced labor used by prisons in the Southern United States. ("Convict" is a rude word for "prisoner"; leasing is like renting something.) Under the system, prisons leased prisoners out as free workers to corporations, business owners, and plantation owners. Basically, the prisons were selling prisoners like slaves, except that they were not sold forever.

This system made a lot of money for prisons and the contractors. The contractors got workers who they did not have to pay, and who they could treat however they wanted. The prisons got payments from the contractors. Also, they no longer had to pay for food, clothing, or housing for the prisoners who they leased out; the contractors did.

In 1898, for example, about 73% of Alabama's entire yearly state revenue came from convict leasing.^[1] For this reason, convict leasing lasted almost 100 years in the South.

1. ↑ Perkinson, Robert. Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire, (2010) ISBN 978-1-429-95277-4, p. 105