By Major W. Cox
The Department of Corrections received $530,839.00 in May 1995 from inmates serving sentences in Alabama prisons using a work-release program. This amount represents 32.5 percent of the inmates' gross earnings of $1,633,434.00. From these earnings, work release inmates paid nearly $200,000,00 in federal and state taxes, $52,318.00 to dependents and $7,920.00 in court ordered child support. And after paying $69,818.00 in court ordered restitution, work release inmates deposited $417,198.00 in their individual prison accounts.
Statewide, Prison Commissioner Ron Jones said in an interview for this column, 2,075 inmates are employed at private companies under the work release program. Mr. Jones said that this year he expanded the number of inmates in work release from 1,800. He expects the program to grow to 2,400 by the end of the summer and to 3,000 by the end of the year. The Commissioner describes the program as a great boon for taxpayers of Alabama. Work release nets the state more than $6 million annually and he expects that amount to reach 8 or 9 million dollars next year.
Warden Wayne Deloach recently established a work-release program at the Bullock Correctional Facility in Union Springs. He says inmates in work-release at the Bullock County site will be housed in trailers on land owned by the state. They will live at this site and wear civilian clothes, just as everyone else in the community. Presently he says that 26 inmates work the night shift at Wayne Poultry Plant. These inmates receive the minimum wage.
Mr. Deloach described the program as benefiting all parties involved; taxpayers, Wayne Poultry, prison employees, and inmates. He said the money received by the Department of Corrections from assessing inmate salaries saves tax dollars. Wayne Poultry is happy with the program because they are getting needed workers at their plant. Prison employees hope the plan will save them from expected job cut backs due to the budget shortage. And inmates like the program because it allows them the opportunity to earn money for their inmate account that will be there for them at the end of their prison sentence. The warden believes work-release reduces recidivism.
Responding to concerns about inmates taking jobs from local workers, Mr. Deloach explained how the program protects the jobs of local workers. Prisoners only work at jobs in companies that have been unable to hire local workers. "If local workers want those jobs they can have them, prison inmates are not taking jobs from local workers," Mr. Deloach says. He said if the employees at the plant were to strike for higher wages or better working conditions, inmates are required to honor their picket line.
Wayne Poultry, when contracted for this column, responded through Daryl Natz a New York spokesperson for Continental Grain Co., the corporate parent of Wayne Farms. Mr. Natz acknowledged the fact that some prisoners from the Union Springs Correctional Facility did work at the plant. He declined to discuss the arrangements between his company and the Alabama Department of Corrections.
The work-release program is open to the public. Any business or individual looking for workers can go to the work release center at the prison located on U.S. 82, East of Union Springs and make application for workers. The bus from the prison will deliver and pick up inmates to and from their work location. Employers hiring work-release inmates must pay these workers at least the federal minimum wage. Warden Deloach says that some of the more skilled inmates in the program demand and receive more. As an example he told of a Tuskegee construction company considering hiring carpenters at $8.00 per hour. Mr. Deloach says that he knows of one inmate, working as a welder, who accumulated $12,000 in his inmate account. This individual took his money and started a welding business when he got out of prison.
The inmate work-release program is not without critics. Some say work-release programs take jobs from local workers. Companies needing workers, they argue, will have no incentive to pay more than the minimum wage in communities where prisons are located. Others say the state's 30 percent assessment to inmate earnings is too small, it doesn't reflect the prisoners' real cost to tax payers. Instead of allowing inmates to save 4 or 5 million dollars annually in individual prisoner accounts, they think the state should take a larger share of inmate earnings.
Beyond local considerations, there is a national political aspect to this issue. President Clinton criticized and threatened the Chinese government with diplomatic sanctions for using prison labor to manufacture goods for export to the United States. Proponents of prison work-release are quick to point out one major difference between programs in Alabama and China. In Alabama, prisoners are paid for their labor, while in China, according to news reports, prisoners are used as slave laborers.
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Originally Published: 6 June 1995, Montgomery Advertiser
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