Philadelphia Appeals Court Case Highlights Prison Labor Rights

About two-thirds of the 1.2 million people incarcerated in state and federal prisons work, according to an American Civil Liberties Union report, producing more than $11 billion in goods and services each year, while earning between 13 cents and 52 cents per hour on average.

A federal appeals court in Philadelphia will hear oral arguments on whether to revive a class lawsuit alleging that a Pennsylvania county prison's work program amounts to forced labor in violation of state and federal law and the U.S. Constitution, potentially clarifying what legal and constitutional protections apply to prison labor, Bloomberg News reports.

Prisoners civilly detained for failure to pay child support are challenging the alleged forced-labor scheme at Lackawanna County Prison, which requires them to work for half their term at a privately owned recycling facility for $5 a day.

U.S. District Judge Robert Mariani dismissed the lawsuit last year because the prisoners didn't show they were compelled to participate in a work-release program, which was supposedly voluntary.

The Justice Department told the Third Circuit that Mariani was wrong to require the prisoners to allege they couldn't secure their own release to claim a violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act forced labor provision.