Incarcerated labor can reduce the burden on taxpayers, improve the prison system and prepare people like me for life after prison.
[Originally published by Prison Journalism Project.]
By James Mancuso
Idaho spends almost $75 a day to house me and every other person in its prisons. At around 8,000 people incarcerated, that’s nearly $220 million a year. Imagine if you had an item in your garage that cost $75 a day to store, all the while becoming less and less useful. Would you simply keep it there?
This is the reality for the majority of people behind bars. I too used to lead a stagnant life where I had no job and no responsibility. I was placed in storage, all on the taxpayer’s dime. I didn’t worry about where my housing, food and clothing were coming from.This life of dependence can continue once people leave prison with few work skills and mounting debts.
What if the state instead gave everyone jobs? Not only would that save the state and its taxpayers money. If done responsibly, it would help people on their journey toward rehabilitation.
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery for everyone except those convicted of a crime. As harsh as that sounds, I agree with the intent of the amendment, with the exception of how it has been historically used against Black and brown people to exploit them. Work would offer an opportunity to prepare incarcerated individuals for a self-sufficient life after prison, while making use of their labor to improve the prison system.
Roughly 30% of people incarcerated in Idaho work some kind of job. They provide janitorial and maintenance services inside prisons, and help with state road projects, firefighting and forest initiatives. A smaller number work in trades based on vocational training programs, according to data provided by the Idaho Department of Corrections.
At the Idaho State Correctional Institution, around 130 incarcerated people — myself included — are employed by Idaho Correctional Industries in full-time construction and manufacturing jobs. We make items that are sold to nonprofits and government agencies. Right now we are making 170 maple bunk beds and end tables for the military. The metal shop recently made truck racks for Idaho Fish and Game. The graphics shop makes street signs and plaques, and once even made promo stickers for a landfill.
These jobs give people real-world work experience and skills, and ease the burden of incarceration for the taxpayer. The only real problem is that the program has limited capacity which means few people benefit.
Expanding programs like this could provide low-cost labor for construction, manufacturing and farming — industries that lie at the heart of the United States’ current trade battles. At my aging facility, the large recreational field is in complete disrepair and the crumbling medical annex stairs are unusable. With budget cuts to state agencies, I doubt these repairs will be made. Our labor could fill the gaps.
Expanding the vocational training program could have other benefits. In Maine for example, a new program allows incarcerated individuals to work remotely. According to reporting from Maine Public radio, not only do 10% of wages of people earning above a certain level go back to the DOC for room and board, assaults on staff have drastically declined too.
Idaho retailers and wholesalers could work with similar programs to build businesses that would benefit all state residents, generate tax revenue and provide jobs for more than just the incarcerated. Picture poultry barns we build that could provide eggs to the prisons be sold wholesale or offered to the Idaho Foodbank. This could be done with all kinds of agricultural products. We could even run culinary production facilities that cater to Idaho-based companies.
To safeguard against exploitation, Idaho would need to change how it manages its incarcerated population. I propose medium custody, labor-centric facilities where those willing to work and follow the rules are offered full-time jobs with degrees of freedom similar to what they could expect on college campuses. Workers could be paid a wage of $1 to $4 an hour. This would allow the state to benefit from the labor, while allowing incarcerated residents to develop valuable work skills, begin to pay debts incurred inside and save some money for release. Those who have demonstrated they can thrive in this environment should automatically be granted parole when they are up for it.
Of course not everyone agrees. Prison labor is a well-known catalyst for abuse that can include backbreaking tasks, inadequate nutrition, dangerous work conditions and meager wages. Some critics argue an emphasis on labor would deprioritize investments in education, mental health or reentry programming.
But I think these investments go hand in hand. I make $1.75 an hour in my manufacturing job, enough every month to save $50, purchase about $60 in phone time, buy hygiene essentials and coffee, and donate a little to the Idaho Foodbank, all while paying 20% of my wages to my owed restitution. Working hasn’t stopped me from my education and reentry goals. I’m currently taking a weekly computer class and a victim empathy class, and I participate in a peer mentoring program.
Idaho already has an example it could build on: the community reentry centers, where individuals nearing release live and work in communities. Because operating costs are partially covered by the residents’ wages, daily costs are almost $17 less per resident. And these employed residents keep a lot more money in their pockets. According to a report by the office responsible for evaluating Idaho state programs, residents in reentry centers had an average account balance of $5,605, compared to $58 for people in prison who work jobs.
Expanding the model to people who are not yet close to release would reap huge economic and social benefits, for both the prison system and the people it incarcerates.
In my experience, most incarcerated people want to contribute to society to make up for the damage they have done. By taking more of us out of storage and putting us to work, Idaho could help people repay their debts to the state and its taxpayers, while also giving us a leg up to succeed once we get out.