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Prison work programs can keep idle hands busy...
The majority of prisoners have very limited job skills. Only about two-thirds of offenders are employed in the month before their arrest, indicating a detachment from legitimate work that may encourage criminal activity. Prison work programs have existed in federal and state prisons for decades in order to provide inmates with opportunities for productivity and with job training to prepare them for release. Because there is a close relationship between the ability to find and retain work and staying out of prison, effective prison work programs not only benefit offenders but also enhance the peace and security of the communities to which they return.
Several aspects of prison work programs need improvement in order to best equip inmates for future meaningful work. Mandatory source clauses require most of the federal government to buy all goods over $2,500 from Federal Prison Industries (FPI). This prevents open market competition and thus fails to train inmate workers to respond to customer needs and strive to make high-quality products worthy of purchase. Prison work programs pay inmates a small fraction of the amount they would earn if they were working the same jobs outside of prison. This limits prisoners’ ability to learn the valuable skills of money management, to send support to their families, and to save in preparation for release. Furthermore, some federal prison work programs place inmates in shrinking industries, such as textile production, which does little to develop relevant job skills.
Justice Fellowship calls for meaningful and productive work.
An opportunity, however, to earn viable wages would allow inmates to 1) pay restitution; 2) pay child support; 3) learn to manage money; and 4) develop skills that will help them successfully reintegrate into the community. Justice Fellowship supports eliminating all mandatory source clauses so that inmates working in federal prisons can learn to make products that compete in the open marketplace. We also support privatizing prison industries to give inmates quality job preparation. Pat Nolan, Vice President of President Fellowship, has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. As the criminal justice system equips offenders with abilities to improve their chances of successful reentry, it actively promotes restoration and hope.
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