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... By the time Jones was driving back to the work release center with six other incarcerated workers, it was pelting rain. Jones had a reputation for driving fast and some of his passengers said he was racing along the country road, jamming to music in his earbuds. Suddenly, the transport van hit a dip and swerved on the wet pavement, slamming into a tree.

Two men died after being thrown out of the van. And Jones, who was critically hurt and slumped over the blaring horn, had to be cut out of the vehicle. As the other men staggered into the storm to flag down help, they wondered: Why would the Alabama Department of Corrections place their lives in Jones' hands?

"They knew he had a propensity to drink," said Shawn Wasden, who survived the crash. "And they put him behind the wheel of a van anyway."

No state has a longer, more profit-driven history of contracting prisoners out to private companies than Alabama. With a sprawling labor system that dates back more than 150 years -- including the brutal convict leasing era that replaced slavery -- it has constructed a template for the commercialization of mass incarceration. ...

The cheap, reliable labor force has generated more than $250 million for the state since 2000 through money garnished from prisoners' paychecks. ...