US 77 at Turner Falls overlook, near Davis, OK. Jason B./Flickr. Creative Commons.
Americans like myself tend to imagine that convict labour, hidden as it often is behind high walls, resides in the backwaters of the economy and the history of southern chain gangs. At most, Americans reckon that our license plates might be made for the state by underpaid inmates. But we certainly don’t imagine call centre staffers taking hotel reservations to be prisoners. Nor do we think that American military uniforms, solar power panels, surge protectors, computer circuit boards, hamburgers, or American flags are the products of prison labour.
