Defense Attorney Sues For Prison Slave Labor

Defense Attorney Tony Serra Sues Feds Over Slave Labor Practices

By Lynda Carson April 1, 2007

Oakland, CA. -- During late March, San Francisco's well known and respected activist attorney J.Tony Serra, filed suit against the federal government over slave labor practices.
Just out of California's Lompoc prison after serving 10 months for his years long tax boycott, the celebrated attorney filed suit in an attempt to force the federal government to pay it's prisoners a fair wage compensation for the work being done by prison inmates, while serving time.

"Prisoners have no rights in America. They don't care about the prisoners in this country, and the prisons are profitting from the slave-like conditions being forced upon the inmates. Lompoc has a dairy and meat industry, including a cable factory which is a supplier for the navy and armed forces industry. Lompoc generated alot of money last year, little of which was returned to the inmates as compensation for the work they do. The federal prison workforce generates around $65 million per year in net profits, and I received 19 cents an hour when working at Lompoc, while the other prisoners were only earning anywhere from 5 cents to $1.65 an hour for their labor. These are slave wages, and often the inmates come back from work covered in filth and are worn out at the end of the day," Serra said. San Francisco