How much should they be paid? Presumably not as much as they would be outside the prison, given that the government pays for their accommodation, bills, food, medical, etc.
By giving people more money, it helps people in all situations to avoid going back to prison. Money helps even if you seek social assistance -- you can have better rent options, you can have better clothing for interviews, better peace of mind in their financial situation (because they might not be free and clear of previous debts, either)...
Some (if not all) states require you to continue paying debts and taxes (e.g. child support) while incarcerated.. so at $.10/hour you almost certainly had to sell everything you own even if you're incarcerated for under a year.
But simply on the topic of paying prisoners the market rate for labor, the idea does seem unjust to me.
Let's say we have two people, Jack and Jill, who both work a low paying job and are miserable. One day Jill decides to rob a store, but is caught and goes to prison for a few years. In prison she is first working some menial job, but a government program trains her in some skilled labor (we might imagine she is learning to code). After completing her sentence she is released and has the entire amount that she earned (minus no expenses) and trained a valuable job skill that will enable her to get a better paying job.
Meanwhile Jack, who committed no crime, has had to pay for his expenses (which eat up the majority of his pay), and received no help or training.
We reward Jill for her criminal behavior by "fixing" her life so she is less likely to commit crimes in the future, but we ignore Jack even though he was equally miserable, but chose not to commit a crime.
The real issue is that currently both Jack and Jill are getting screwed over by society. We should fix both. It wouldn't even be that expensive and it would in fact probably lead to greater happiness and lower overall societal costs like healthcare (e.g. poor people kicking the can until they can't escape it any longer and now it's a very expensive stage 4 cancer) and justice (don't need to pay for as many expensive courts if there's less crime). And probably more tax take as everyone in the bottom 90% of society basically spends what they earn and doesn't hide it in the Caymans.
But greater and more equitable overall growth is still less short-term growth for the top, so we can't have it.
Welfare provided to one shouldn't necessarily be compared with all other potential recepients always. Improving the situation of one does not mean others' shouldn't receive assistance as well.
It varies wildly in the US, but some of those like "medical" and "food", are debatable. Our prison system is truly barbaric in some places.
Otherwise, you get institutionalized slavery, like we have now and is documented in this article.
However, if you do take a job, you should be paid for it, like everybody else.
This is important to counter prisons for profit schemes as well as improving the wellbeing of the prisoners.
Top of my head, I’d estimate an effective hourly rate of about £1 to £2 for a week’s work at minimum wage minus payment to the prison for accommodation and food - but then there is an issue of whether prison labour is of real economic value and not often a form of ‘make work’ ie is sewing mail-bags really worth £10 an hour? Perhaps 50p per hour (net) is actually a fair return for value produced?
The problem is that the state is exploiting the prisoners for profit. The profit should go to the prisoners doing the work.
Prisoners should be allowed to acquire and purchase necessities without markups with their earnings.
Prison facilities and services should be free.
Being "rich" in prison doesn't mean you get to improve your gaming rig or buy a Roomba, it just means you don't have to consider whether to spend $2 to see the doctor. I would be fine with that.
Also, everything in prison is reported to be expensive, bad quality, and full of extra fees. So if they only have one expensive brand of toothpaste, they should at least earn enough to afford _those_ prices.
If people leave with money, they can actually try to break the cycle... Perhaps try to keep some of their property/belongings for short incarcerations... Most Americans families would lose their house and/or car if one parent was in jail for 6 months... Which makes prison a family killer, encouraging more crime to continue from neglected children and single mom/dad now working 2-3 jobs to cost the gap
To me if you pay prisoners a normal wage it would seem too much like a reward for breaking crime, given that we pay all their normal expenses as well.
Furthermore, as the article states, prison services are substandard or entirely missing. Either fix that and we can talk deductions above normal taxes or allow the prisoners to earn minimum wage or more and to keep their earnings.
It's not minimum wage. It's minimum wage plus room and board plus shitty food and healthcare. Even for someone young and healthy, albeit uneducated, a few years in prison could yield a nest egg. For someone with a chronic health condition, getting sentenced could be the smart move. (This is true even today, depending on your city and state.)
The price of prison labor, what companies and the government pay for it, should be no less than prevailing wages. Ideally, indexed to the county the prison is in. What the prisoner is paid out of that should deduct some amount, again ideally related to a local cost-of-living index, that goes into a rehabilitation fund.
You want to trade your freedom and clean criminals record for minimum wage plus room and board?
No sane person would do that.
Prisoners should receive their wages less income taxes. Anything else creates a moral hazard, as we have seen with prisons for profit.
That doesn’t mean wages could not be garnished if there is a judgement against the prisoner.
minimum wage (but not really), shitty room, shitty food, shitty healthcare
Cons:
minimum wage (yeah, not really), shitty room, shitty food, shitty healthcare,
AND
- loss of freedom,
- loss of reputation,
- loss of privacy,
- no prospect of advancement,
- no raises,
- even shittier neighbors (on average),
- holidays without your family,
- almost impossible to get a job when you're out,
- no vacation or other time off,
- no or almost no sex or intimacy with your loved ones,
- being treated like shit every day,
- the threat of solitary,
- being in solitary,
I could go on, but why bother.
It’s crap that’s reality. But it’s true, and between the prison population and those folks, I would argue for prioritising the latter. (Naturally, it’s better to do both.)
Then charge them for those living expenses. Pay them a normal wage for outside, and then charge them what it would cost to rent a tiny room you share with another person plus the real cost of a boiled egg plus a peanut butter sandwich. I imagine they'd end up with something like 90% of their wage left.
Truly better and more rewarding than being marginally poorer outside
They are not wards of the state nor are they locked up. That’s a huge win.
The correct solution isn’t to make prisoners more miserable, but to make everybody less miserable.
We should encourage reading and education in prisons instead