Morgan Rowland
With the devastating effects of Hurricanes Milton and Helene still being felt across the southern United States I can’t help but wonder to myself, what happens to incarcerated people during a hurricane. This is a question that many free people and northerners, like myself, have never thought about because it hasn’t affected us the way it has southerners, especially imprisoned ones. Hurricane Katrina is one of the most well known and devastating natural disasters of our time. 1,300+ people died, $125 Billion dollars was done in damages and countless people lost their homes, memories and history in a matter of days. Amongst these victims, are the prisoners of the Orleans Parish Prison, who, according to the ACLU, “suffered some of the worst horrors of Hurricane Katrina (ACLU, 2006). The ACLU published a full report detailing the horrors experienced by the people in the Orleans Parish Prison, described as “most dangerous and mismanaged jails in the country,” during and after Katrina (ACLU, 2006).
During Hurricanes Milton and Helene, many prisoners were not only not evacuated, with little resources, but their labor was used to help prepare Florida for the impact. According to Vera, prisoners “helped prepare for Hurricane Milton by filling sandbags for other residents (Dholakia, 2024). This is legal because of a loophole in the 13th amendment which makes slavery illegal unless as punishment for a crime, said loophole has been used for years to employ prisoners as slave labor being tasked with things such as preparing for natural disasters, fighting wildfire and cleaning up the aftermath of these natural disasters. These prisoners usually receive little to now compensation for this forced labor and because society views prisoners as less than, their stories often fall on deaf ears.
Even when looking at the prisoners in the hurricane's path who were “evacuated” most of them were simply transported to different facilities in the same state that were described as “absolutely filthy” (Dholakia, 2006). Prisoners at the Mountain View Correctional Facility were simply left and had to stay in their cells as they flooded, simply put they were left for dead. Prisoners are an afterthought in this country, they are used as slave labor to protect property and they are employed as cleanup for the aftermath. Nobody thinks about them or cares what happens to them because many people believe that if you’re in prison then you’re deserving of forced labor and death regardless of whatever it is you actually did. This is a violent and debasing practice that has been going on in this country for decades and an end must be put to it.
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