Minneapolis, MN – Prisoners in Minnesota are earning less than a dollar an hour making products for Disney. That’s according to organizers and former inmates who gathered at a press conference in December to share what they’ve learned — or experienced firsthand — about the exploitative prison labor system in Minnesota.

Organizers with the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee called the press conference last month to update the public about their campaign to end what they call prison slavery.

The Minnesota constitution allows for exactly that – slavery as part of a punishment for a crime. Under article one, section two of the state’s constitution, involuntary servitude is barred unless someone has been convicted of a crime. Under the statute, prisoners can be subjected to unpaid and grossly underpaid work.

Through a subcontractor, Anagram International LLC, Disney has taken advantage of this law to extract nearly-free labor from the state’s inmates, paying them $0.90 an hour to fold large Mylar balloons, according to organizers of the event and two inmates who shared their firsthand experience.

Former inmates who had worked under Anagram described the conditions they faced during the December press conference. From harsh quotas and long hours to punishment for not meeting productivity goals, two formerly incarcerated men said that the work was functionally slave labor.

Jermale Kling, who was imprisoned in Minnesota, worked under Amalgamated earning just $0.25 an hour, he told Unicorn Riot.

“We’re still a state that’s ran by slavery and look at people as property,” Kling said after detailing his work inside.

There, he said him and other inmates were tasked with folding life-sized balloons to be sold in novelty stores. Four prisoners have to work together to fold these balloons down to a packable size in 10 seconds.

Beyond low wages, Thao Xiong, another former prisoner at Minnesota Correctional Facility Faribault, described a system that punishes inmates who don’t meet productivity goals set by the factory.

“If you don’t make a quota then you get a 23-and-1,” Xiong said, explaining a “23-and-1” as 23 hour of confinement in your cell with only one hour outside your cell allotted for showers.

Xiong, a community organizer in St. Paul’s North Side, was detained by ICE on Wednesday morning.

While Anagram, and by extension Disney, were the focus of last month’s press conference, the movement represented at the event aims to abolish prison slavery in Minnesota completely. Nonprofits and inmates are organizing against the practice and calling on state officials to change the law.

The End Slavery in Minnesota Coalition, a network of businesses, nonprofits and other organizations, highlights two pieces of legislation that would end legalized slavery in Minnesota: a 2023 bill introduced that would remove the slavery clause from the constitution, as well as the Bill to End Slavery in Minnesota, which would reclassify incarcerated workers as employees, affording them more protections.

End Slavery in Minnesota Bill Advocates for Fair Wages in Prisons – April 2025

More Unicorn Riot coverage of prisons.

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