I am writing to commend the student journalists at Amherst Regional High School for a recent story in The Graphic, on the use of prison labor at Amherst middle high schools.
The article was an outstanding piece of investigative journalism, rigorously researched and exceptionally well written. The decision of Superintendent Michael Morris to hire MassCor to reupholster seats in the school auditoriums instead of negotiating with the local, socially conscious, and socially responsible Wellspring Cooperative, flew under the radar and exposed some troubling flaws in the school system’s decision process and a failure to exercise transparency in local government.
I commend these young journalists for revealing the exploitation inherent in for-profit prison industries and for exposing the canard that for-profit prison industries serve prisoners’ well-being by preparing them for a job on the outside. The decision to hire MassCor was at best, ethically fraught, and I expect to see more vigilance on the part of concerned citizens and a critical review of how such decisions are made as a result of this article.
I have not looked at The Graphic in many years, but this article will motivate me to check in on a regular basis to see what Amherst journalism students come up with next.
Arthur S. Keene
Amherst
The writer is an emeritus professor of anthropology at UMass Amherst.