Offender Work Programs

A PROPOSED PRISONER WORKFORCE-DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

CURE-NY has put together a draft proposal addressing the thorny issues of inmate productive work, job preparation to enable a living wage, and the corollary education, and training to make that possible.

This is a minefield, with fears of a new slavery and crass exploitation of minorities for corporate profits. Nevertheless, the problems of earning a living wage are fundamental to dignity and a crime free life.

For a look at the details, go to:

Prisoner Workforce-Development

If you're interested in this, and want to help in this draft's evolution, send your comments to cureny@bestweb.net

If you like what you see, why not discuss it with your NYS legislators?

Why Work Programs?

Many prisoners lack the work ethic and the values that go with it - the satisfaction of a good day's work, pride in one's self-sufficiency, managing and budgeting resources, paying what you owe, saving for the future. Prison industry and the work ethic offset the dependency bred into many lives and the antisocial behavior that accompanies it.

Basic Goals

Just keeping busy isn't nearly enough. A meaningful work program should aim for some if not all of the following:

Real skills training that will enable the inmate to be a productive, self sufficient, tax-paying worker upon release (most important).

Training in the work ethic.

Contributions to costs of room and board.

Payment of restitution to victims.

Payments for family support.

Development of an efficient, productive, work force.

Well managed correctional facility with reduced idleness and reduced costs.

And a Reduction in Recidivism

A 1996 report from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, concerning a studyof 7000 offenders, 8-12 years after release, produced two statistically significant conclusions. Inmates who worked in prison industries were 24 % less likely to recidivate throughout the observation period, while those who participated in either vocational or apprenticeship training were 33 % less likely to recidivate throughout the observation period (William G Saylor and Gerald G. Gaes, "PREP: Training Inmates through Work Participation, and Vocational and Apprenticeship Instruction," U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons, September 24, 1996).

Work Preparation

A typical inmate may be young (17-30), drug involved, probably abused as a child, illiterate, having no job history, and having very low self esteem and self confidence. Such inmates require training to prepare them for work.

Types of Prison Industry

Four types of prison industry are in operation in various states. These are:

Private Sector Employer. An example of this type is the hotel reservation system of Best Western International. Inmates receive the same starting salary as agents on the outside. They benefit from the same employee incentive programs. Best Western trains, equips, and supervises its employees.

State Use Industries. Here the state operates an industry and sells its products, usually to a restricted government market. An example of this type is the federal industries known as UNICOR. It employs about 30% of the federal inmate population. It produces items from gloves and eyeglasses to equipment for environmental testing and guided missile propulsion. UNICOR pays lower than market wages (up to $1.10 per hour), and so limits inmate ability to pay restitution and family support. UNICOR is entirely self sustaining.

Private Industry Customer. Here the state owned factory sells all or most of its products to a specific customer.

State Owned, Privately Operated. In 1981, a combination of public and private approaches to inmate work was created by the Florida legislature. Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises (PRIDE) is a non-profit, state-sponsored prison corporation. Florida's Department of Corrections supplies the workers. PRIDE builds and pays for its work facilities, without government money. PRIDE currently trains about 5,500 inmates in marketable skills. Inmates work in some 50 industries, ranging from shoes, furniture, eyeglasses, and bookshelves to designing modular office systems. PRIDE gives inmates individualized employment assistance and, upon release, job placement and emergency assistance. Ex-prisoners may also participate in a year-long follow-up program.

In it's April 30, 1996 report, the California Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) recommended to the California Legislature the Reform of its Prison Industry Agency. The LAO proposal is patterned after PRIDE

PRIDE has also succeeded in reducing the recidivism rate of inmates assigned to its prison enterprises. Florida officials point to data indicating that only 15% of PRIDE's inmate workers returned to prison over four years. Overall 51% of Florida inmates eventually return to state prison.

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In 1992, more than 2000 inmates worked in private-sector prison industries. Nearly 65,000 had state-use industry jobs. More than 14,000 had federal prison-industry jobs.

Federal Regulation

In 1979,Congress enacted Public Law 96-157, which created the Private Sector/Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PS/PIEC). The program authorizes correctional agencies to engage in the interstate shipment of prison-made goods for private business use if: (1) inmates working in private sector prison industries are paid at a rate not less than the rate paid for work of a similar nature in the locality in which the work takes place, (2) Prior to the initiation of a project, local unions are consulted, and (3) The employment of inmates does not result in the displacement of employed workers outside the prison, does not occur in occupations in which there is a surplus of labor in the locality, and does not impair existing contracts for service.

As of March 1993, 32 correctional agencies were certified to operate private sector prison industries. Private companies now use prison-based work for data-entry and information processing, electronic component assembly, garment manufacturing, contract packaging, metal fabrication, telemarketing, and handling travel reservations.

A Prison Industry Model

A proposed model purporting to represent the optimum strategy from the public policy point of view (Barbara Auerbach et al, "Work in American Prisons, The Private Sector Gets Involved," Nat. Inst. of Justice) has the following key elements:

1. Private sector management of the operation
2. Comparable wages, with a wage floor of at least the federal minimum wage.
3. Combined public and private capital investment.
4. Treatment of inmates as employees.
5. Location of production on prison grounds.

Corcraft Work Program, Effect on Recidivism

A 1993 study of participants in the Corcraft Industrial Training Program in New York (Kathy Canestrini, NYS Dept. of Corr. Svcs.) shows a positive effect of that work experience.

After 60 months of follow-up, after release from prison, the successful work-program participants had a 25% probabiity of returning to the Corrections Department. The comparison groups were twice as likely to have returned to the Department (55% and 52%).

A CURE-NY Opinion

Our primary objective should be crime and cost reductions through the future employability of ex offenders in jobs providing them a livable wage.

This likewise should be aimed at increasing national productivity by better utilizing the production potential of the large stream of ex offenders being released each year from our prisons.

Given this objective, we must focus on the spectrum of prerequisites for achieving that objective, including adequate alcohol/drug treatment for the 70% of offenders who need such treatment, plus a minimum education such as the GED, plus vocational or industrial skill training along with some corresponding work experience.

It follows that work experience should not be emphasized to the detriment of either addiction treatment or general education, but that these two should be prerequisites to prison industry employment.

Our work-oriented emphasis should be on vocational training and apprenticeships with associated work experience. A corollary of this would be that at least one track of the federal PIE legislation should require that vocational training and/or apprenticeship programs should accompany and complement many of the PIE work programs.

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