We published an investigation this week featuring Christian Alcoholics & Addicts in Recovery, a rehab program that puts court defendants to work at chicken plants.
The workers don’t get paid for their labor. CAAIR does.
We found a slew of rehab programs that supply cheap and captive workers to major poultry companies, such as Tyson Foods and Simmons Foods.
The chicken companies pay for the labor. In some programs, the rehabs pocket the wages, and the defendants work for free. In other programs, they get to keep some of their pay.
Rehab: Drug and Alcohol Recovery Program
Chicken company: Simmons Foods
A convicted meth dealer named Raymond Jones started DARP after finding God in another work-based program. Like CAAIR, DARP is Christian-based. The participants aren’t paid. It was CAAIR founder Janet Wilkerson’s inspiration.
Drug courts in Oklahoma routinely send men to DARP.
“You had to work six days a week,” said Tanner Woods, who was court-ordered to the program. “I was worse off when I left DARP than I was when I got there.”
One man severely hurt his ankle while working in the chicken plants, according to a lawsuit. Rather than get him proper treatment, DARP sent him “right back to work.” Another drug court defendant who was recovering from back surgery was forced to work at Simmons, under threat of prison. He said he worked 14-hour days, six days a week, according to his deposition in a lawsuit.