Should We Rethink Prison Labor?
A question that needs to be asked before reading this story is whether prison is a form of revenge or rehabilitation -- or how much of each it is. What are our real goals in sending people to prison? Do we think we deter others from committing crimes?
(And to answer that properly, I think we have to separate the murderers from the thieves and such.)
There's a long-form piece in the American Prospect, "Modern-Day Slavery in America's Prison Workforce: Why can't we embrace the idea that prisoners have labor rights?" by Beth Schwartzapfel. An excerpt:
Because inmate workers are not considered "employees" under the law, they have none of the protections that word implies. No disability or worker's compensation in the event of an injury. No Social Security withholdings, sick time, or overtime pay. In three states--Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas--they work for free. In Texas, where inmates are required to work under threat of punishment, most do maintenance tasks like Hazen, but some are assigned to "field force" jobs designed to be particularly demeaning. "It wouldn't be an ideal job," says Jason Clark, Texas Department of Criminal Justice public information officer director. "Someone may have had disciplinary issues, so they end up in the field force, doing various things including clearing fence lines. They're out under armed-guard supervision, using their labor."If that scenario sounds familiar, it should. "Thousands of prisoners toil in the hot sun every day and make nothing," says Judith Greene, a researcher and advocate with the nonprofit group Justice Strategies. "Prison guards on horseback, ten-gallon hats, prisoners in their uniforms. It looks like what it is: plantation labor all over again."
...Since prisoners are so far removed from the free market, and since their work is barely recognized as such by government agencies that regulate labor, they have little recourse and few protections. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is one safeguard they do have--federal and some state inmates "working in conditions similar to those outside prisons" can file an OSHA complaint if their workplace is unsafe--but it's toothless because, unlike in a free-world workplace, OSHA has to notify prisons in advance of inspections. A 2010 report by the government's General Accountability Office (GAO) skewered the federal prison system for purposefully hiding from OSHA dangerous practices at an electronics-waste recycling plant where toxic dust sickened hundreds of inmate workers and officers.
Despite the conditions and the pay, most inmates want to work.
...Study after study has found what common sense would suggest: Prisoners who gain professional skills while locked up, and those who earn a decent wage for their work, are far less likely to end up back behind bars. But if prisons in America, with the world's highest incarceration rate, had to pay minimum wage--let alone the prevailing wage--they couldn't keep operating. If inmates like Hazen weren't washing dishes in Massachusetts prisons, the state's corrections department would spend an average of $9.22 to hire someone else to do it (the mean hourly wage for a dishwasher, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics). That's 30 to 45 times what inmates make for performing the same service. As a result, prisons--and taxpayers--use prisoners to save hundreds of millions of dollars each year on labor costs, according to the GAO.
"If our criminal-justice system had to pay a fair wage for labor that inmates provide, it would collapse," says Alex Friedmann, managing editor of Prison Legal News, an independent magazine that promotes inmates' rights. "We could not afford to run our justice system without exploiting inmates."
But aren't they costing us far more than they are saving us?
It turns out that it costs us in recidivism when they get out of prison with no savings for a fresh start.
Here's an idea:
Paying inmates a prevailing wage would eliminate the complaint by free-world competitors and labor unions that prison shops are undercutting wages, since the wages would be the same on the inside and on the outside. It would help inmates make amends for their crimes, too, by allowing them to pay restitution to victims. And it would help them to accumulate some savings so they can rebuild their lives when they're released.But prisons have no incentive to pay inmates better--to the contrary. Unlike workers in the free market, who (theoretically, anyway) can weigh factors like pay, working conditions, and other benefits when deciding where to work, inmates do not have a choice between employers. If they need the money, or the experience, they must take or leave what the prison is offering.
I'd like to see incentives for prisoners to work. It feels good to accomplish something and learn a skill. I do think prisoners should make at least minimum wage.
However, I do believe that they should meet their expenses just like I must do. We should all be working to provide for ourselves as we are able (I has to add the as we are able as I've been bedridden most if this month.)
I believe in workfare, not welfare. We must all do our best to earn our keep.
Jen at May 29, 2014 4:05 AM
Every job I've ever had, OSHA has had to give 24 hr notice of an inspection, unless it was a repeat offense, and I have only seen one repeat offense inspection (we didn't have our eyewash station cleared during an inspection once, and got spot checked two months later after the fine).
spqr2008 at May 29, 2014 5:43 AM
I also believe prisoners should meet their expenses. But being injured on the job in prison, with no protection, is not part of one's sentence and should not be part of one's stay in prison.
Interesting on the 24-hour notice by OSHA. It's like when my landlord's coming in. If I know, I clean up and then still apologize for how messy it is.
Amy Alkon at May 29, 2014 6:46 AM
Perhaps we need to rethink criminal sentences entirely. Indeed, what is the purpose of prison?
Punishment? For many criminals who have been in and out of prison their entire lives, it is not particularly unpleasant. Evolution has equipped us with a far more effective system: Do something stupid and it hurts. Why not make use of this very efficient, built-in system? Why, exactly, are we so squeamish at the idea of inflicting pain as punishment? Perhaps precisely because it is so effective?
Rehabilitation? Usually that means imparting job skills. So require the person to attend the necessary classes (on pain of punishment). This does not require prison; at most, an ankle bracelet.
Protecting society? This is the only sense in which prison actually makes sense. If punishment for crimes (see above) were quick and certain, only the truly insane would require actual imprisonment, in which case, it would be more of a psychological institution.
I'm not totally sure I agree with the above argumentation, but I present it precisely because it does make a lot of sense. It is my paraphrase of Heinlein's writings from many decades ago...
a_random_guy at May 29, 2014 8:00 AM
If you want the prison to start paying "a fair wage" then let them charge the inmates for rent, food, utilities, clothing, etc. - yes, even guard service. And don't forget taxes - federal, state, and local. After all that the inmate's "take home" pay will probably be less than he's getting now.
This is a prison. The people in it are not in trade school on a scholarship. While prison does not give the state a right to exploit, demean, or brutalize them, these are not people who decided to go to trade school or join the military to learn a skill. They committed crimes against society that got them put into prison. While it benefits society to teach them a skill while they're inside, it is not an obligation of society to do for them by force what they failed to do for themselves by choice.
Most prisoners are not Jean Valjean, imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread to feed their hungry child. Most prisoners knowingly violated the law because getting a law-abiding job, like washing dishes at $9.22 an hour, didn't interest them.
This means that when inmates like Hazen get out of prison they'll be qualified and experienced enough to get a job as a dishwasher for $9.22 an hour - should they choose to go straight.
Conan the Grammarian at May 29, 2014 8:13 AM
I think the sentence is to be incarcerated, not to work for free or get beaten and raped, giggling Puritan sadism notwithstanding.
Honestly if I was locked up I'd volunteer to cut the grass and pick up litter just to be outdoors.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at May 29, 2014 2:00 PM
While the argument sounds nice I agree with Conan. Minimum wage outside means paying for things they get free: rent, utilities, food, etc...
NakkiNyan at May 29, 2014 8:21 PM
Listen, our politicians and financiers are cock-suckingly insane, as is about 68.98% of the American taxpaying population. Our economy, in global terms, is poised to plunge into muck for at least a generation and a half. The corrective force, be it warfare or spiritual illumination, is not yet (even) in sight.
Things are about to get REALLY bad, money-wise, for a whole lot of people.
Taking economic opportunities from decent folk and giving them to convicts is probably a non-starter.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at May 30, 2014 1:38 AM
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