06-29-2021, 03:20 PM
These programs benefit the employer and the prisons while exploiting prisoners.
They also create false hope for inmates who upon release discover that very few employers will hire felons, even with relevant experience. However while incarcerated they find employers are more than happy to take cheaper workers.
"Work release program inmates at Russell Stover are paid $14 an hour, a better wage than they could hope for inside the prison, where they'd make only 60 cents an hour. But it’s well under the starting wages offered to other employees, who can expect anywhere from $15 an hour to $22.10 an hour to start for a variety of positions at the plant, with set raises based on time of employment.
Inmates are paid a flat rate—saving the company money. And that’s before the state takes its cut.
The prison takes 25% for "room and board" and the check loses another 5% for a Victim's Fund. After those deductions, $50 a week for gas for the bus trips to the plant, and taxes, inmates are left with around $200 a week—of which an additional portion is then put into a forced savings account.
A program earnings statement from a different company I reviewed showed those numbers in real terms—the inmate's $917.60 gross pay for two weeks, $779.00 after taxes, took a $229.40 room and board hit, $45.88 to the Victim's Fund, and $50.37 in forced savings. The deductions left the inmate worker with $453.35, less than half what they earned in total for over 77 hours of work—about $5.89 an hour.
“These programs can very quickly become exploitative,” said Kansas ACLU Legal Director Sharon Brett. “While work release programs in general are a good thing, the contours of the program—and how much money people get to take home at the end of the day—are certainly appropriate questions to be asked.”
https://eoinhiggins.substack.com/p/faced...-at-kansas
They also create false hope for inmates who upon release discover that very few employers will hire felons, even with relevant experience. However while incarcerated they find employers are more than happy to take cheaper workers.
"Work release program inmates at Russell Stover are paid $14 an hour, a better wage than they could hope for inside the prison, where they'd make only 60 cents an hour. But it’s well under the starting wages offered to other employees, who can expect anywhere from $15 an hour to $22.10 an hour to start for a variety of positions at the plant, with set raises based on time of employment.
Inmates are paid a flat rate—saving the company money. And that’s before the state takes its cut.
The prison takes 25% for "room and board" and the check loses another 5% for a Victim's Fund. After those deductions, $50 a week for gas for the bus trips to the plant, and taxes, inmates are left with around $200 a week—of which an additional portion is then put into a forced savings account.
A program earnings statement from a different company I reviewed showed those numbers in real terms—the inmate's $917.60 gross pay for two weeks, $779.00 after taxes, took a $229.40 room and board hit, $45.88 to the Victim's Fund, and $50.37 in forced savings. The deductions left the inmate worker with $453.35, less than half what they earned in total for over 77 hours of work—about $5.89 an hour.
“These programs can very quickly become exploitative,” said Kansas ACLU Legal Director Sharon Brett. “While work release programs in general are a good thing, the contours of the program—and how much money people get to take home at the end of the day—are certainly appropriate questions to be asked.”
https://eoinhiggins.substack.com/p/faced...-at-kansas
