Prison and the Work Ethic

Despite persistent depictions to the contrary, coercion pervades the modern work experience and, in many significant respects, is underwritten by the power of the state. This article outlines some of the ways in which long-standing interventions by Canadian (and British) states continue to affect workplace relations today. To appreciate the scope of this effect, it is necessary to trespass across a number of disciplinary boundaries to include topics such as immigration, deportation, political policing, the legal foundations of employment law, the continuing influence of the British Poor Laws, and the role of prisons and prison labour in helping to regulate work standards. States acted to support proletarianization in a comprehensive way, but their tendency to favour large-scale, 'labour-saving' building projects has often undermined the actual effectiveness of their efforts at social control. These patterns still haunt prison policy, as I will show toward the end of the article in discussing the Toronto South Detention Centre. Keywords: unfree labour, supermax prisons, policy failure, institutional decay, labour policy Malgre les protestations persistantes du contraire, la coercition impregne l'experience de travail moderne et, a de nombreux egards importants, elle est garantie par le pouvoir de l'Etat. Cet article decrit certaines des facons dont les interventions de longue date des Etats canadiens (et britanniques) continuent d'affecter les relations de travail aujourd'hui. Pour apprecier la portee de cet effet, il est necessaire de franchir un certain nombre de frontieres disciplinaires pour inclure des sujets tels que l'immigration, la deportation, la police politique, les fondements juridiques du droit du travail, l'influence continue des lois britanniques sur les pauvres et le role des prisons et du travail penitentiaire pour aider a reglementer les normes de travail. Les Etats ont agi pour soutenir la proletarisation de maniere globale, mais leur tendance a favoriser les projets de construction a grande echelle et << economes en maind'oeuvre >> a souvent sape l'efficacite reelle de leurs efforts de controle social. La politique penitentiaire est toujours hantee par ces schemas de coercition, comme on le verra clairement vers la fin de l'article dans notre discussion sur le Centre de detention du Sud de Toronto. Mots clefs : travail force, prisons a haute securite, echec de politique, deterioration institutionnelle, politique du travail
IN 15TH-CENTURY EUROPE, THE WORD 'police' was not used to describe a particular institution or set of state officials. Instead, it referred to a notion of 'good government' that involved [...]