(Newswire.net — August 17, 2015) Nashville, TN — In some circumstances, inmates can work without pay, however, jail employees cannot profit from their work, even in private prisons. Larry Stephney and Charles Brew, former inmates of a Nashville prison, claim they were among prisoners that manufactured various merchandise, which prison officials sell at a flea market, AP reported. Stephney and Brew stated they were forced to work for free.
According to inmates, the prisoners worked without pay building bean-bag “corn hole” games, plaques shaped like footballs, birdhouses and dog beds so that officials could sell them through their personal business. Allegedly, two jail employees and one former jail employee founded a company called Stand Firm Designs, which uses inmates to manufacture products they are selling for $10-$50 per piece, in the local flea market.
To prove the items being sold by Stand Firm Designs were made by inmates, Stephney and Brew concealed their names under pieces of wood nailed to the backs of items, AP reported. They also wrote the number 412148 that refers to a section of Tennessee code that makes it illegal for jail officials to profit on inmates labor.
According to inmates, behind Stand Firm Designs are Rob Hill, Steven Binkley, and Roy Napper, who formerly worked at the jail run by Corrections Corporation of America. Allegedly, Hill and Binkley also took orders on items inmates produced, from guards and some high-ranked jail officers.
While the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation investigates allegations of misuse of inmate labor at the facility, Napper disputed allegations claiming it is all a “bogus thing.”
“All I can tell you is it’s really just a bogus thing. There’s not really any slave labor going on over there,” he said. “Since it’s under investigation, I can’t really tell you anything else,” Napper told AP.
The jail is run by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest private prison operator, through a contract with the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office.
There is a program of tutoring inmates to construct various items from wood. However, in those workshops, only tutors are allowed to touch the tools. According to Stephney and Brew, they worked by night, producing items as ordered.
“I’ve been in that shop at 11 o’clock at night, 1 o’clock in the morning,” Brew said. Brew also worried if he complained he would be punished or worse.
“It was common knowledge,” he said. “Who are you going to tell? I couldn’t even file a grievance on the issue,” Brew told AP.
Both Stephney and Brew were serving time for probation violations. Stephney was released in June and Brew was released in July, AP reported.