ATLANTA (AP) 鈥� As Herschel Walker campaigns for the U.S. Senate, he calls for society to help the downtrodden the way he says others helped him overcome mental health struggles. That includes those in the criminal justice system.
鈥淚f someone comes out of prison, they should have incentives set up that the person has learned a trade, and you give an incentive for a company to hire him so he can make a living for himself,鈥� Walker said Aug. 17 in Kennesaw, Georgia.
Touting his own success, Walker added that it鈥檚 his 鈥渞esponsibility now to help.鈥�
Yet federal court records reviewed by The Associated Press suggest Walker鈥檚 food distributorship has gotten a boost, through a firm he touts as a principal partner and supplier, from the unpaid labor of drug offenders routed to a residential rehabilitation program in lieu of prison.
Lawyers for participants in the program, an Oklahoma-based outfit named 鈥淐hristian Alcoholics & Addicts In Recovery,鈥� decried it in court as a 鈥渨ork camp鈥� that profits from a 鈥渧ulnerable workforce under the guise of ... rehabilitation services.鈥�
It鈥檚 not possible to quantify financial gains Walker might have gleaned from undervalued labor. But links among his Renaissance Man Food Services, the processing giant Simmons Foods Inc., and the CAAIR program provide at least some contrast to Walker鈥檚 campaign pitch.
Walker is trying to unseat Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, in one of the nation鈥檚 marquee midterm elections. Their matchup could determine control of the Senate.
CAAIR began more than a decade ago sending residents to work at Simmons Foods Inc., a company Walker touts as a principal partner and supplier to his distributorship, Renaissance Man Food Services. State judges assign convicted offenders to CAAIR, letting them choose between the residential program or traditional incarceration. Simmons would contract for labor with CAAIR, whose participants were not paid.
U.S. courts have declared such arrangements legal. But many criminal justice experts are critical of the free-labor programs.
鈥淒rug courts are typically a pretrial diversion program,鈥� said Jillian Snider, a former New York City police officer and now criminal justice and civil liberties policy director at R Street, a center-right think tank based in Washington.
Snider described the ideal as 鈥渁lmost like an outpatient program鈥� with professional counseling and skills training, plus some job responsibilities that include wages. Designs based more on work than rehabilitation and skills training, Snider said, are 鈥渦nique mostly to Southern states.鈥�
A federal lawsuit still pending against CAAIR and Simmons has detailed how some participants were allegedly pressured to work when injured, compelled to attend religious services, and threatened with imprisonment if their work was unsatisfactory. CAAIR, participants alleged in court, did not always provide necessary rehabilitative or psychiatric treatment, the kind that Walker has emphasized when he shares his personal story. CAAIR described its services in court filings as 鈥渁 combination of work therapy and spiritual and religious counseling.鈥�
Snider explained that 鈥渢alking to professional counselors鈥� and 鈥渂eing set up with real educational advancement opportunities and skills training鈥� must be included for a 鈥渇ull program,鈥� and that isn鈥檛 possible, she said, 鈥渋f you鈥檙e working full-time in a chicken facility.鈥�
Nonetheless, a trial court judge in 2020 rejected participants鈥� assertions that CAAIR violated federal labor law. An appeal is pending.
CAAIR CEO and co-founder Janet Wilkerson told The Associated Press she 鈥渘ever had any dealings鈥� with Walker. She declined further comment, citing ongoing litigation.
Neither Walker nor Renaissance Man Food Services was named as a defendant. Walker鈥檚 campaign declined to comment on the matter, saying Simmons is not Walker鈥檚 company. A Simmons representative did not respond to inquiries.
Yet in Walker鈥檚 telling, Simmons is a key component of his success. On the Renaissance website, Simmons is the only supplier or partner mentioned by name: 鈥淩MFS joins with Simmons Foods to bring quality ... products to the retail and food service marketplace.鈥� The website highlights one of its locations as Siloam Springs, Arkansas, where Simmons is based. The relationship dates back as early as 2006, according to Walker鈥檚 previous statements to media.
Renaissance advertises as a certified minority owned business 鈥� Walker is Black 鈥� that works with 鈥渟upplier partners to meet the needs of our retail and food service customers.鈥� That suggests a relationship in which Walker partners with food processing firms to act as distributor so that an end-line business is buying from a minority owned firm.
CAAIR, meanwhile, bills itself as a faith-based enterprise. Its programs launched in 2008 with six men, according to its website, and by 2015 housed 200 in three dorms.
Throughout the litigation, Simmons and CAAIR have defended their practices. But one thing has never been up for dispute: The men CAAIR sent to the chicken factories were not paid.
鈥淧articipants ... perform work without compensation at various nearby work-providers, including Simmons,鈥� lawyers wrote in the program鈥檚 defense. 鈥淭his requirement is no secret.鈥�
In court filings, Wilkerson described her 鈥渃lients鈥� rather than employees. Participant signed documents stipulating CAAIR 鈥渄id not offer (them) a job鈥� and that they would 鈥渘ot receive wages.鈥�
鈥淪immons pays CAAIR for the work performed by CAAIR participants at a rate well above minimum wage,鈥� Wilkerson attested.
Wilkerson submitted examples of an 鈥淎dmission Agreement鈥� that promises 鈥渨ork training at a job site,鈥� along with the requirement of 鈥渨orking at a designated job site.鈥� The documents do not name any prospective companies, explain any jobs or detail any training.
Participants were 鈥渇ree to leave (the program) at any time,鈥� the documents state. But such an action could result in 鈥渃onsequences from the criminal justice system for early departure.鈥�
In a separate federal case against another not-for-profit rehabilitation program, Simmons again defended its practices in a 2020 鈥渇riend of the court鈥� brief filed in support of DARP Inc.
Citing Simmons鈥� relationship with CAAIR, Simmons鈥� lawyers wrote that 鈥淐AAIR operates on the same basic model鈥� as DARP to 鈥減rovide vocational opportunities for those struggling鈥� with addiction.
Participants worked 鈥渢o achieve their own rehabilitation, not for the benefit of DARP鈥� or any for-profit firm, the brief states. Further, the lawyers asserted that unpaid laborers receive a benefit beyond money: 鈥渁 sense of self-worth and accomplishment.鈥�
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Bill Barrow, The Associated Press
