Most people would agree that if prisoners learned a skill while they
were in jail they could more easily get a job when they got out, and that
an ex-prisoner with a job is less likely to commit another crime. Since
nearly one-half of people released from prison return to prison within three
years, job skills could mean a significant decline in the crime rate.
The problem is that most productive prison work - other than food or laundry
work within the prison itself - is against the law.
In 1936, Congress banned convict labor on federal contracts exceeding $10,000
in value. In 1940 the Ashurst-Sumners Act made it a federal crime to transport
convict-made goods in interstate commerce. And many state legislatures have
enacted laws to prohibit the sale of convict-made goods within their borders.
States like New York compromised and adopted the "state-use" system,
which permitted convicts to manufacture goods for sale to governmental agencies
only, which provides a very limited market for the fruits of convict labor.
These statutes were a form of protectionism - to protect providers of goods
and services in the free market from having to compete with convict labor.
Small businesses and labor unions view such competition as unfair, and have
successfully prevented relaxation of the statutes. When Congress tried to
change the laws in 1979, the best it could do was allow prisoner work if
they are paid the prevailing wage, labor union officials approve, local
labor is unaffected, and no local unemployment is produced. These criteria
are nearly impossible to meet, so a mere 1,660 prisoners, out of one million,
were working under these waivers in 1994.
It was not always this way. In the last century, prisons earned a major
part of their daily cost by leasing convict labor to private employers.
In 1885, three-fourths of prison inmates were involved in productive labor,
the majority working for private employers under contract and leasing arrangements.
By the 1930s only 44% worked, and nearly all worked for state industries
rather than for private employers. A 1990 Census found that only 11% of
prisoners worked in prison manufacturing or farming, down from 16% in 1984.
If part-time work in laundry and food services is included, only about half
of prisoners work.
Many prisoners are eager to work, if only to relieve the tedium of prison
life. But more important is that the work is good for society in the long
run because it reduces crime. A 1983-87 Federal Post-Release Employment
Project study confirmed that employed prisoners do better than others without
jobs. Prisoners who work have fewer disciplinary problems in prison and
lower rates of re-arrest; they are more likely to get a full-time job; more
likely to quit their job in favor of a better-paying job; and less likely
to have their supervision revoked for a parole violation or new crime. In
the words of Thomas Townsend, president of the Corrections Industry Association,
"It's a matter of public safety: inmates who have worked in prison,
and gained new skills have a significantly better chance of not returning
to crime and prison...."
The only disadvantages of more work opportunities for prisoners are the
feared competitive effects on local labor markets. But the government's
first responsibility is to citizens, not to narrow interest groups. New
production benefits all Americans. It raises the demand for their services
and creates new goods for purchase. Competition is the strength of our economic
system, not a wrong to be righted, so our policies should be breaking down,
not erecting, barriers to work - especially when the work will make the
streets safer for the rest of us.
Allowing prisoners to work makes sense. Begin by repealing state and federal
limitations on inmate pay. Let responsible private businesses competitively
bid for the use of prison labor. Let prisons "profit" from accepting
these contracts. Provide monetary incentives to prisons and their wardens
for leading their institutions to self-sufficiency.
It won't be easy for the private-sector bidders, because prison labor is
not easy to use. Difficulties include security problems, lack of skills
and good work habits, remote prison locations, and poor worker productivity.
At least at the beginning, the market value of prisoner labor will be very
low and the quality of their work poor. But both will improve as skills
improve.
Across the country a million prisoners are serving time in jail. Each month,
40,000 of them are released under mandatory supervision, on parole, or at
the conclusion of their sentences. Our streets would be safer and the crime
rate lower if these men had a skill, a job, and the beginning of a future.
The National Center for Policy Analysis is a public policy research institute
founded in 1983 and internationally known for its studies on public policy
issues. The NCPA is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with an office in Washington,
D.C.