Paid prison labour
Paid prison labour is the participation of convicted prisoners in either voluntary or mandatory paid work programs.
While in prison, inmates are expected to work in areas such as industry, institutional maintenance, service tasks and agriculture. The most common work assignments contribute to facility support, such as food service, groundwork, building maintenance and office administration. This work is performed on a full- or part-time basis. However, exceptions include inmates who are medically unable to work, involved in full-time Educational or vocational training programs, or deemed a security risk.
The benefits of paid labour for inmates may include heightened incentives for good behaviour, productivity and post-release skill development, in addition to improved emotional wellbeing. Prison institutions are benefited by minimised inmate idleness and potential for security issues, the completion of necessary maintenance tasks and reduced prison operating costs.
Labour obligations and wage rates vary across different countries. For instance, prison work assignments are prevalent in the United States, with over half of prisoners being assigned a work program. In Japan, labour is required of all prisoners but options concerning the type of work performed are permitted. Prisoners serving short sentences are not required to work in Austria, Luxembourg, Norway, Lebanon, Syria and Cuba.
Paid prison labour is also implemented differently across penal Institutions.
Types of work
Maintenance
The majority of inmates are paid a wage for working in maintenance, custodial or service jobs within the prison. These tasks include cooking meals, maintaining the prison grounds, laundering inmate clothing, repairing boilers and conducting clerical work. On occasion, inmates are involved in labouring for public projects – for instance, assisting local communities to repair roads, clearing land and planting trees.In the United States, work that supports the prison institution is managed by the Department of Corrections and remains the most common type of work assignment. This category of tasks is referred to as ‘facility’, ‘prison’ or ‘institutional’ jobs. The 1973 National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals define prisons as ‘labour-intensive public service organisations’ characterised by the involvement of paid inmates, contract service workers and employees.'
An inmate's knowledge, skills and their prisoner classification score are considered when making job assignments. In Australia, a prisoner's refusal to work negatively impacts their ‘Earned Incentive Plan’ level – this affects the provision of their inmate privileges, such as television, yard-time and family visits.
Industrial
Prisoners perform industrial work for prisons and private companies. This work involves providing services for sale to government agencies, state-owned or private sector businesses and manufacturing products. Goods and services are sold at prices designed to cover production costs and business or prison operations. Often called ‘correctional industries’, some businesses coordinate with correctional agencies to operate ‘shops,’ on which the generated revenues fund their operation.Most US inmates are assigned to maintenance rather than industry work. A US nationwide 1991 American Correctional Association survey reported that only 8% of federal and state prisoners had research and industry type jobs. This distribution is a permanent feature of paid prison labour models – evidenced by a more recent 2017 figure indicating that agency-operated industries employ approximately 6% of prisoners.
External
Some prison labour programs provide opportunities for inmates to work outside the prison facility. These activities include work release programs, work camps and community work centres that provide services for public and non-profit agencies. In the U.S., these programs are directed by the Department of Corrections and are typically reserved for lower-security risk prisoners and/or those preparing to be released.On the condition that an inmate is physically and mentally capable, participation in these work programs is designed to benefit the community, the Department of Corrections and the inmates themselves. Since 1934, UNICOR has partnered with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons. UNICOR operates 83 factories, employing more than 12,000 prisoners for up to US$1.15 per hour to assemble, weld and fabricate products.
Wage payment
Prisons generally incorporate a no-cash system, meaning any amount of money an inmate possesses or earns is stored in a bank account managed by the correctional facility. The accumulated amount of money that a prisoner earns, brings into prison and is sent from family or friends may be used to make purchases. Any remaining credit is given to the prisoner upon release. During their time in prison, inmates are entitled to monthly printouts of their electronic account balance.Electronic kiosks are emerging as a more efficient alternative to the traditional paper-based system. Predominantly in private prisons, automated kiosks allow inmates to check their account balance and place their canteen orders.
Methods of wage payment vary across prisons. Payment may be based on an hourly rate, cover a time period or be determined on piece work. Inmates may also earn extra for overtime, the longevity of their employment or receive payments through workers’ accident compensation. Some correctional facilities pay prisoners for their participation in educational programs or vocational training.
In most cases, wage payments are made weekly based on an hourly rate. Attendance records are kept for all working prisoners. Within the wage levels attributed to each inmate's classification, workers generally begin on their determined minimum wage and proceed to the maximum level according to longevity or proficiency at work.
Prison labour wages are characteristically low. In the US, the average daily minimum wage for non-industry penal jobs was US$0.86 in 2017 compared to US$0.93 in 2001. The average daily maximum wage for industry-type work also declined from US$4.73 in 2001 to US$3.45 in 2017. Inmates working for state-owned businesses earned between US$0.33 and US$1.41 per hour in 2017 – about twice the amount paid to inmates who work regular prison jobs.
With a few exceptions, regular prison jobs remain unpaid in the U.S. states of Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Alabama and Arkansas.
Spending wages
While incarcerated, individuals are provided free accommodation, basic toiletries, meals and required clothing. Inmates must purchase phone credit and other goods using the money earned and stored in their prison-managed bank accounts. Most commonly, spending is directed towards the canteen or prison shop.In public prisons, canteens provide products such as tobacco, hobby materials, stationery, non-prescribed medication, additional food and toiletries. Prisoners may also purchase clothing or religious/cultural items from exclusive catalogues. In the UK, public sector prisons base their inventory on a national product list of approved items. Prisons in the private sector generally rely on their own canteen system.
In some penal systems, the money that prisoners are allowed to spend is determined by their behaviour and rank on the Incentives and Earned Privileges scheme – a system employed in England and Wales. Within this national scheme, the maximum a prisoner can spend per week is £25; however, most prisoners are limited to £15.50. According to their custody level and individual spending limit, inmates may purchase hygiene products, candy, vitamins and supplements, clothing and desk lamps.
Prisoners can purchase goods using canteen sheets that indicate the available products and attached pricing. Completed orders are sent to a courier service – primarily DHL international couriers –whose staff ship the goods to the prison over the following week. In the U.S., money withdrawal requests are made by completing an ‘Inmate Request’ form, which allows inmates to spend money on television rentals, postage, magazine subscriptions, legal fees and charitable contributions.
Prisoners can purchase clothes and other items not included on the canteen sheet – for instance, DVDs and CDs from catalogues such as Amazon. Most prisons attach an administration fee to cover the associated processing and delivery costs of these external orders.
Different systems
United States
Work programs operate in 88% of prisons in the United States and employ approximately 775,000 prisoners. The vast majority of inmates are employed in support and maintenance roles, delivering mail, washing dishes and doing laundry. In the federal prison system, pay rates for these jobs range between US$0.12 to US$0.40 per hour. A smaller 4% of the U.S. prison population work in ‘correctional industries’, producing goods and services which are then sold externally to government agencies, Schools and non-profit organisations. U.S. states have their own correctional programs, while the federal system operates in partnership with the UNICOR initiative.Across the U.S., receipt of wage payment and the amount of this payment differs. In most cases, the state and the Federal Bureau of Prisons provide compensation for working prisoners; however, some states do not pay prisoners for labour and others generally only pay inmates involved in industry jobs. A relatively low number of incarcerated individuals work for private businesses, with only 6% of state and 16% of federal prisoners working in association with private companies as opposed to approximately 2,220,300 prisoners who work in prison maintenance.
Wages earned by inmates in the U.S. are credited to their electronic bank accounts bi-weekly. Court-ordered or statutorily mandated deductions such as filing fees, child support, transition and restriction fees may be derived from these bi-weekly wage payments.
Triggered by the Prison Industry Enhancement Act in 1979, a wave of U.S. legislation re-authorised paid prison labour. It dictated that prisoners in all 50 states must work during their incarceration. The private use of inmate labour remains prohibited in various international conventions, for instance, the ILO 1930 Convention Against Forced Labour. However, private use is permissible in the U.S. through federal and state laws, which are grounded in the 13th Constitutional amendment abolishing slavery except as a punishment for a crime.