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The Pros And Cons Of Inmate Labor In Prison

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Prison labor is not a new phenomenon of the correctional system. The idea of inmate labor has been instilled in penitentiaries for a great while. In recent years, the idea of prison labor has regained popularity among numerous correctional institutions, both prisons and jails. I, personally, believe inmates should work while incarcerated. After all, citizens in the free world must work to survive. Inmates are no different in this aspect. Inmate labor was designed with the purpose of “offsetting the cost of incarceration” (Derrick, Scott, & Hutson, 2004, p. 74). The operational cost of prisons, and jails for that matter, is exponential. Tax-payers have the burden of monetarily contributing to the overwhelming cost of housing criminals. …show more content…

However, we, as tax-payers, are paying for our living expenses as well as those of inmates. Therefore, I believe inmates should work for free. The allotted money for working inmates should be given back to the state and tax-payers. There are a multitude of work programs for inmates. The Fair Labor Standards Act does not pertain to correctional institutions (Derrick, Scott, & Hutson, 2004). Meaning, the correctional system is exempted from abiding by the laws under this act. Therefore, inmates can be paid any wage with no benefits. There have been a multitude of heated debates on the topic of low wages for inmates. However, a great deal of working citizens is paid meager wages with no benefits. Besides income, work programs can be extremely beneficial to inmates. The act of working assists inmates with learning a variety of skills, accountability, and other knowledge to prepare inmates to enter the workforce upon release. While learning the necessary skills to gain employment outside of prison, inmates can also assist with feeding the prison population through agriculture. Many correctional institutions incorporate agriculture into their inmate work programs. Not only does this program assist with feeding inmates, it saves tax-payers money. Some inmate agriculture programs also assist with feeding the

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