How prisons and temp agencies exploit the most vulnerable workers

In this episode of Rattling the Bars, host Mansa Musa speaks with Miami-based organizer Katherine Passley about how prison labor, temp agencies, and the 13th Amendment have created a system that traps formerly incarcerated people in unending cycles of cheap, hyper-exploited work. Passley, Co-Executive Director of Beyond the Bars, also talks with Musa about how her organization is fighting to win free jail phone calls, erase millions of dollars in fines and fees for systems-impacted people, and build powerful bridges between the prison abolition movement and the labor movement in Florida.

Guest:

• 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.

Additional links/info:

• Beyond the Bars website, Substack, and Instagram
• Kim Kelly, In These Times, "Building bridges and erasing jail debt: Katherine Passley"
• Mansa Musa, The Real News Network, "America is built on prison labor. When will the labor movement defend prisoners?"

Credits:

• Producer / Videographer / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino

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