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Mar 4

Beyond Bars: Rethinking Fair Compensation for Prison Labor

On February 26, 2024, a post on X published by artist Justin Mashouff went viral. In the post, Justin shows an image of an unnamed prisoner’s donation of $17.74 to relief efforts for the ongoing crisis in Gaza. The donation sounds meager, but it’s even more astounding given the fact that the unnamed prisoner’s donation was the sum of an astonishing 136 hours of prison work. In the bottom left corner of the prisoner’s pay sheet posted by Mashouff, we see an alarming pay rate: $0.13/per hour. This anonymous donation is incredibly heartwarming, but it raises an alarming fact: prisoners are making pennies compared to the unincarcerated population.

According to Walter Ball of the Vera Institute of Justice, the average U.S. prisoner earns $0.25/hour, but wages can range from $0.65/hour to a mere $0.10/hour depending on the prisoner’s assignment, position, or the state in which they are incarcerated (Ball, 2023). These wages are earned through a variety of job assignments. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, about two-thirds of prisoners in the U.S. hold job assignments (ACLU, 2022), which encompass a range of tasks from manufacturing and assembly work for private contract companies to in-house maintenance duties such as janitorial or clerical work within prison facilities. In sum, prisoners keep prisons functioning. Without the hard, tireless work of incarcerated people, prison facilities would run in complete chaos.

Comparing prison wages to those of unincarcerated individuals, rates as low as $0.10 per hour, or even zero dollars per hour as seen in seven U.S. states, unmistakably constitute modern-day slave labor, perpetuating a cycle of severe abuse. Given the fact that prison labor is often mandatory and facilitated by correctional officers, inmates are frequently subjected to exploitation. Inmates are often forced to work unsafe jobs without proper treatment and are

ignored when expressing concerns about safety. This form of oppression not only violates basic human rights but also undermines any notion of rehabilitation within the prison system.

The abysmally low wages provided to prisoners not fall in line with visions of modern slavery, but also contribute to increased recidivism rates. According to the ACLU, 70% of prisoners cannot even afford basic necessities in commissary such as hygiene products and food, let alone luxuries such as phone calls and electronics (ACLU, 2022). Beyond being forced to cover essential items, prisoners are left with hardly any wages left for saving, leaving them in a state of profoundly poor financial health. This, in turn, may increase recidivism and rearrest upon one’s re-introduction to society. In a study published in Criminology & Public Policy, research finds that “poverty status increases the odds of rearrest by a factor of 4.6” (Holtfreter, et.al, 2006). By not paying inmates proper wages, correctional facilities are both decreasing the quality of life of prisoners and setting them up for complete failure upon release.

Since the landmark decision was made to sign the 13th amendment into the constitution, society seems to have collectively decided that slavery is inhumane and have worked to eliminate it entirely. If we are to continue to uphold the notion that slavery is unacceptable, then we must advocate for fair prison wages. We cannot continue to allow an already unjust system further exploit the hard work of its laborers. Upholding the dignity and rights of all individuals, regardless of their status, demands that we advocate for equitable compensation within the prison system. Only through such efforts can we truly uphold the values of justice, fairness, and human dignity for all.


References

Aclu. (2023, November 20). Captive labor: Exploitation of incarcerated workers: ACLU. American Civil Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/captive-labor-exploitation-of-incarcerated-worker s


Ball, W. (2023, February 7). Increasing prison wages to dollars just makes sense. Vera Institute of Justice. https://www.vera.org/news/increasing-prison-wages-to-dollars-just-makes-sense#:~:text=The%20current%20wage%20scale%20for,%240.25%20per%20hour%20or%20less.


Corlette, N. (2022, April 17). Prison Labor Is a Human Rights Abuse. Harvardpolitics.com. https://harvardpolitics.com/prison-labor-is-a-human-rights-abuse/


Decker, C. (n.d.). Time to Reckon With Prison Labor. Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies. https://isps.yale.edu/news/blog/2013/10/time-to-reckon-with-prison-labor-0


Holtfreter, K., & Morash, M. (2006, March 7). Poverty, State Capital, and Recidivism Among Women Offenders. Wiley Online Journal. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-9133.2004.tb00035.x#:~:text=Results%20from%20the%20logistic%20regression,status%20was%20taken%20into%20account .


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