Prisoner Pay

History

Until the early 20th century, prisoners were commonly used as contract laborers who were leased to private businesses for a fee payable to the prison. However, following examples of widespread corruption of officials and abuse of prisoners, by the 1900s most states had banned prison contract labor. They replaced it with the public account system, in which prisons bought raw materials that prisoners used to make goods, and the public works system, in which unpaid prison labor was used to provide necessary services such as road construction or repairs. These practices were short-lived, as they were thought to be unfair to private businesses, which had to compete against the free labor of prison workers, at the same time as they exploited prison workers, who were paid nothing for their work.

Federal legislation designed to address these concerns was introduced in the early 1900s, which limited the export of prison-made goods and the use of convict labor on government contracts. A number of exceptions were carved out in the 1940s that increased demand for prison labor. Beginning in the 1950s, the state-use system, which allows prisoners to produce items for use by the prison itself and for [Page 759]government agencies, often with pay, became common practice. This remains the most common form of prison work today.

Introducing Prison Pay

In 1973, President Richard M. Nixon issued an order that entitled federal prisoners to be paid for their labor, and most states followed suit with similar legislation. In 1979, restrictions on interstate sale of prison-made goods were lifted, and prisoners nationwide were required to be paid minimum wage for labor on products sold interstate. They did not have to be paid for products retained within a state or sold outside the United States.

These wage requirements laid the groundwork for a new type of prison work in the United States, the use of “free market” prison industry. Private companies employing prison labor has notably increased in recent years, with such examples as “Prison Blues,” a line of prison-made clothing and furnishings from the Unigroup Correctional Industries of Oregon, which boasts annual sales in excess of $20 million and greater than minimum wages for prison workers.

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