Carceral Labor and Academic Libraries: Investigating the Library Furniture

Abstract

While moving furniture in preparation for the morning opening, a librarian glanced down and saw a chair’s manufacturing label reading Corcraft, a known New York State Department of Corrections manufacturer that uses prison labor to produce its goods. This was not surprising; higher education’s involvement with the prison industrial complex (PIC) is well documented. The State University of New York’s procurement policies, following state law, list the Department of Corrections manufacturer as its top preferred vendor. As members of the Alfred University Libraries Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression working group, the authors conducted an audit of furniture in public library spaces to better understand the libraries' relationship to prison labor. In this article the authors provide context for and detail the Alfred University Libraries’ investigation into the libraries’ relationship with manufacturing prison labor. The investigation utilized a patron furniture audit to collect furniture and manufacturer data. This research project is primarily about demystifying the university library’s relationship to prison labor, with an eye toward future steps needed to address this relationship. To do this, we set out to understand the following: the makeup of our patron furniture; our institution's procurement policies, preferred sourcing, and legal requirements for purchasing; and the manufacturers’ relationships to prison labor. Findings are shared and recommendations are made for divesting from the prison industrial complex.