We the People # 95

29"x23", Mixed Media on paper, 2010-2020

"We cry out today for all those who have become invisible, those who have disappeared behind prison walls, those who have become prey—rape, torture, beatings, prolonged isolation, sensory deprivation, racial profiling, chain gangs, forced labor, rancid food, inadequate medical care, children imprisoned as adults, prisoners forced to take medications to induce lethargy, little or no heating and ventilation, decades-long sentences for nonviolent crimes and endemic violence—and we damn the state that perpetuates this abuse. We say to all those who have turned mass incarceration into a business—the commissary companies; key supply companies; the phone companies, Global Tel Link; the food service companies, like Aramark; the private prison companies, like Corrections Corporation of America; their lobbyists, who write the laws that ensure long sentences, full prisons and huge recidivism rates; and our politicians who pass these laws in exchange for campaign contributions in our system of legalized bribery—we are not deceived. We call out the corporations that exploit underpaid and bonded prison labor for their complicity in neoslavery: Chevron, Bank of America, IBM, Penney, Sears, Wal-Mart, Eddie Bauer, Wendy's, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola, Caterpillar, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, Pierre Cardin and Target. We say to all those who oppress the poorest and most vulnerable among us that what you do is sinful and evil in the eyes of God." Chris Hedges