The largest prison strike in the nation's history is happening right now, but you probably haven't heard about it thanks to a mainstream media blackout.

45 years after the infamous Attica prison riots, prisoners in 24 states have organized the largest prison strike in US history. Since September 9th, over 24,000 prisoners in 40 prisons across the country are striking and refusing to follow orders until their demands are met. These demands include an end to low wage or unpaid prison labor and deplorable working conditions as well as the use of violent punishments if prisoners don't perform in the way that their overseers expect. Some are also demanding access to clean water and an end to solitary confinement. Inmates are putting themselves at great personal risk by participating in the strike. Some have been threatened with guns, dogs, solitary confinement, and transfer to higher security facilities. Several prisons have been on lock-down over prisoner refusal to work, including several in Florida and South Carolina, in the days since the strike began. After trying to organize a similar strike in 2014, Melvin Ray remains in solitary confinement. Despite the threats, prisoners have decided to move forward because they have "reached their breaking point."

credit – blackcommentator.com

Many of the prisoners involved in the strike as well as one of the main groups organizing the strike, the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), have said the movement's goal is "to end prison slavery." Is this a justifiable comparison? As the 13th amendment bans the practice of slavery "except as punishment for a crime," forced prison labor is a literal and unjustified continuation of one of the darkest stains on America's past. Considering that the US has the highest number of prisoners in the entire world, holding 25% of all prisoners worldwide, one could say that the 13th amendment actually allowed slavery to expand – there are 6.85 million prisoners in the US today, 58% of which are either African-American or Hispanic, while, in 1860, there were 3.95 million slaves. This nationwide strike, then, seeks to challenge a system that even the Civil War couldn't end.

Prisoners in the US are forced to work if medically able and are paid paltry sums for their labor, ranging from 12 to 40 cents an hour. Some prisoners in several states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and Texas, are not even paid for their work. They are also supervised by overseers who punish inmates if tasks are not done to their liking.