Alabama is sued by inmates who claim state made a staggering $450 MILLION by 'convict leasing' - and forcing them to work in fast food joints like McDonald's and Burger King 'for next to nothing' in move 'similar to cotton-picking'

A group of current and former prisoners are suing Alabama state alleging they made $450 million by forcing them to work in fast food chains for 'next to nothing'. 

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday at the Middle District Court, claims the prisoners were forced into a 'modern-day form of slavery' by the state. 

It says they were 'entrapped in a system of ‘convict leasing’ in which incarcerated people are forced to work, often for little or no money' while the state kept the profits of their labor. 

The plaintiffs said they are regularly forced to work at McDonald’s, KFC, Wendy’s, and Burger King franchises, Anheuser-Busch distributors, and meat processors. 

According to the complaint, inmates, 'live in a constant danger of being murdered, stabbed, or raped... and if they refuse to work, the State punishes them even more.'

The lawsuit accuses government agencies - including the Alabama Department of Corrections - and over two dozen state officials, including Governor Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall, of violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

Alabama makes $450 million a year from forced labor, according to the complaint, which says since 2018, 575 private employers and over 100 public employers have 'leased' labor from Alabama prisons.

It says the inmates work against their will in 'unsafe work conditions' and the ADOC takes 40 percent of gross earnings claiming it is ‘to assist in defraying the cost of his/her incarceration'.

In September 2023, the complaint says 1,374 incarcerated people were enrolled in the work program. 

One of the individuals involved in the complaint, Lakiera Walker, was imprisoned from 2007 to 2023. 

She said she was forced to perform long hours of uncompensated work 'upon threat of discipline'.

Her jobs included housekeeping, stripping floors, providing care for mentally disabled or other ill incarcerated people, unloading chemical trucks, working inside freezers, and at Burger King. 

She said she was paid just $2 per day and was subjected to sexual harassment by a supervising officer.

When she was so ill she could not work, she said a supervisor told her to 'get up and go make us our 40 percent'. 

She told Law&Crime: 'Those women need help. They really need a voice. I knew I had to do something. I want justice for this forced labor.' 

The complaint alleges that if prisoners do not comply with the rules they risk being 'put behind the wall' in one of the 'higher-security ultra-violent facilities'. 

Plaintiffs argued that Alabama’s practices are illegal under both the Alabama and US Constitutions and asked that the court award compensatory and punitive damages.

One of the plaintiffs, Robert Earl Council, is an incarcerated activist who cofounded the Free Alabama Movement, a group that helped organize a 2016 nationwide strike among incarcerated people. 

The complaint says he has been 'subject to severe and abusive treatment in retaliation for advocating that incarcerated persons refuse to submit to forced labor'.  

He told Law&Crime: 'Alabama seems to be addicted to cheap labor. 

The full list of plaintiffs is: Robert Earl Council, Lee Edward Moore Jr., Lakiera Walker, Jerame Apprentice Cole, Frederick Denard McDole, Michael Campbell, Arthur Charles Ptomey Jr., Lanair Pritchett, Alimireo English, and Toni Cartwright.

Arthur Charles Promey Jr, has been incarcerated for 16 years - he was denied parole in 2022, with ADOC allegedly telling his family it was because 'he was fired from KFC in 2019.' 

This was despite his KFC manager writing 'a letter to the Parole Board specifically recommending him for parole in light of his strong work performance'. 

DailyMail.com contacted Alabama State for comment.