Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin have requested a formal look into a “shadow workforce” at federally funded substance rehabilitation centers. According to a recent Reveal investigation, 300 vocational centers have been using unpaid workers, many in hazardous settings, as well as waiving all worker benefits for patients—in one case, using patients to clean up dead animals in a zoo.  

“We had to clean up blood and stuff, which I didn't feel comfortable doing, because you're supposed to have a hazmat team supposed to be doing that stuff,” said Breden Earl, who served one year at the Synergy Foundation rehabilitation center in Tennessee, according to The Center for Investigative Reporting. “It was literally one of them situations where I was never able to say no.”