Commentary: For Dozens of Million-Dollar Companies Contracting Prison Workers, Crime Really Does Pay

By: Tonyaa Weathersbe

For some, it seems that crime really does pay.

Mother Jones, a progressive news magazine, recently reported on how prisoners are no longer just laboring at making license plates and other state-mandated busywork. Inmates in some states are now doing manufacturing chores and other tasks for corporations who have, undoubtedly, found a way to profit from America’s prison explosion.

Each month, prisoners in California process hundreds of thousands of pounds of beef, chicken products, milk and bread. In Texas, prisoners make furniture and mattresses, brooms and brushes, toilets and sinks. Boeing subcontractor Microjet once used prisoners to cut airplane components at $7 an hour; on the outside, that job would have paid $30 an hour.

Some inmates have even been subcontracted out to sew lingerie for Victoria’s Secret. According to Mother Jones, one contractor, Unicor, outsources call center work to inmates.

Predictably, advocates of paying prisoners minimum wage or pennies for their work on behalf of corporate America say that it’s important because it gives them training. And yes, this wouldn’t be so bad if these inmates, a disproportionate number of them black males, could take those jobs and parlay them into real work once they are released.

But chances are that won’t happen.

COMMENTARY....