The parasite outbreak tied to Taylor Farms produce sent people across the country running to the bathroom in 2026. But as the company faced scrutiny, it also reopened an uglier question that had nothing to do with food safety: how does Arizona's produce industry actually get its labor? Investigators had previously found that companies across the state, including firms in produce and food processing, filled their workforce with incarcerated people through a legal loophole that strips away basic employee protections.
That loophole is written directly into Arizona law. Prisoners doing this work are not legally considered employees at all. No minimum wage. No right to sick leave. No labor protections of any kind, not even for people held under immigration detainers who would otherwise be barred from working legally anywhere else in the state.
Sign the petition urging the Arizona State Legislature to close this loophole for good.
Reporters who reviewed thousands of documents found that some workers were paid as little as $1.50 an hour, while jobs routed through the state's own for-profit prison labor program paid a little more, around $4.75 an hour, still far below Arizona's minimum wage of $12.80. Even then, the state deducts money from what workers earn for room, board, and other costs, in some cases leaving prisoners paying hundreds of dollars a month just to remain in their own cells.
This loophole exists because Arizona law explicitly states that no employment relationship exists between a prisoner and the company using their labor, no matter how many hours they work or how much money that company makes from it. That leaves an entire workforce with no leverage, no protections, and no path to fair pay, while the businesses profiting face little oversight.
The outbreak brought new attention to how little the public knows about who grows and packages the food on their shelves, and how those workers are treated. Closing this loophole would mean any company operating in Arizona has to treat every worker, incarcerated or not, as a person entitled to basic labor rights. No one should be forced to work for pennies an hour with no protections simply because they are incarcerated.
Sign the petition and demand the Arizona State Legislature end the loophole that makes this legal.
