America is built on prison labor. When will the labor movement defend prisoners?

Incarcerated people in the US are routinely forced to work for low pay or no pay, while state governments are saving billions of dollars—and private corporations are making billions of dollars—exploiting the slave labor of prisoners. And yet, incarcerated workers have been largely excluded from the ranks of workers the public in general, and organized labor specifically, cares about. What will it take for unions and union members to embrace incarcerated workers as part of the labor movement? In this episode of Rattling the Bars, Mansa Musa explores the history of labor exploitation and labor organizing in America’s prison system.

Guests:

-Katherine Passley is Co-Executive Director of Beyond the Bars, a worker center in South Florida building the social and economic power of workers with criminal records and their families. Passley was named the 2025 Labor Organizer of the Year by In These Times magazine.

-JoeBill Muñoz is an independent Mexican-American documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, video editor, and journalist. Muñoz is the director and producer of The Strike (Hot Docs 2024).

-Bobby Dellelo spent 40 years of his life in prison. While in prison he earned a BA in sociology, founded the AIDS Education Program, ran the library, and was the president of the National Prisoners Rights Association, the subject of a recently released book, When the Prisoners Ran Walpole: A True Story In the Movement for Prison Abolition.

-Kim Kelly is a freelance journalist and author based in Philadelphia, PA. She is a labor writer for In These Times, a labor columnist at Teen Vogue and Fast Company, and regularly contributes to many other publications. Her first book, Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor, is now available from One Signal/​Simon & Schuster.

Credits:

Producer / Videographer / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino

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