Incarcerated men and women in at least 17 states across the US have begun one of the country's largest prison strikes in history... From 21 August to 9 September, inmates nationwide will abandon their work duties - and some may even abandon food - to call attention to what they view as the exploitative conditions of American prisons... Organisers from Jailhouse Lawyers Speak (JLS) said in a statement that prisoners believe they are "being treated like animals". "Prisons in America are a warzone. Every day prisoners are harmed due to conditions of confinement. For some of us it's as if we are already dead, so what do we have to lose?"

... Prison labour... has seen increased media attention in California recently, as inmates have been fighting wildfires across the state. These volunteer firefighters are paid just $1 an hour... Across the US, prisoners work for similarly low wages - which many activists have called out as a practice akin to slavery. The US constitution outlaws slavery, but not involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime. "Prisoners are a uniquely vulnerable workforce," David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) National Prison Project, told the BBC. "They are not protected by occupational health and safety laws that protect all other workers. If they're injured or killed on the job, in most states they're not protected by workers' compensation. So this creates a situation where the usual checks on employer exploitation and abuse simply don't operate."