Employees of a private Nashville prison and the company that owned the prison are being investigated for using prisoners as slave labor. The accusation comes from two previous inmates who claim to have made various knick knacks in the prison’s woodshop which were then sold for profit by the people in charge.

Former inmates at a privately run Nashville jail say they worked without pay building bean-bag “cornhole” games, plaques shaped like footballs, birdhouses and dog beds so that officials could sell them through their personal business at a flea market. … A section of the website with pictures of the plaques Stephney and Brew say they produced has recently been taken down.

This would be a very tough thing to prove, but the two inmates foresaw that problem and arranged proof even while they were making the items:

To prove the items being sold by Stand Firm Designs were made by inmates, Stephney and Brew concealed their names under pieces of wood nailed to the backs of items. They also wrote the number 412148, which refers to a section of Tennessee code that makes it illegal for jail officials to require an inmate to perform labor that results in the official’s personal gain. The AP was shown some of the items with the concealed names and numbers.

Clever boys. The people who oversaw their work have claimed that participation in the woodshop is voluntary. However, if they are corrupt enough to sell the things made there for profit in violation of the law, they’re probably not the type of people you want to say “no” to when they have a say in your parole – which is exactly how the inmates describe it:

Burns said programs like the building trades class at the Metro-Davidson County Detention Facility are voluntary, and inmates can discontinue participation upon giving notice in accordance with established procedures. Stephney and Brew said they did not feel free to refuse the work. Stephney said he was afraid of making a complaint, worrying that contraband could be planted in his cell, jeopardizing his parole. “You do anything there as an inmate, you get put in the hole,” Stephney said. “If they do something wrong, they should get in trouble too.” Brew also worried something bad would happen to him if he complained. “It was common knowledge,” he said. “Who are you going to tell? I couldn’t even file a grievance on the issue.”

But now both men are released and telling their story. So for whom were these pieces of kitsch being made? They were sold by a company called Stand Firm Designs:

Stand Firm Designs is operated by Rob Hill, a building trades instructor at the Metro-Davidson County Detention Facility; Steven Binkley, a computer instructor who works out of a room adjoining the woodworking shop; and Roy Napper, who formerly worked at the jail run by Corrections Corporation of America.

The Stand Firm Designs website calls the company a “Christian-based organization” and alludes to the company name with a Bible quote on the home page, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” The company’s logo is its initials inside a Christian fish symbol.

So if the claims of these two inmates are confirmed true after investigation (which seems pretty likely at this point), one of two things (or both) seems to be happening here:

1. The perpetrators are not Christians but know that claiming to be Christian is a good smokescreen for immoral behavior due to Christians assuming other Christians are moral.

2. They really are Christians and Christianity doesn’t keep people from being immoral.

Of course, both are true: con men and criminals of all sorts already use Christianity as a shield and Christianity doesn’t keep people form being immoral. We just have to determine which is at play in this case.