NCJ Number
235467
Journal
Corrections Compendium Volume: 35 Issue: 3 Dated: Fall 2010 Pages: 14-27
Editor(s)
Susan L. Clayton
Date Published
2010
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Data on correctional industries reported from 44 U.S. correctional systems and one Canadian system in 2010 address the number of participating inmates, eligibility criteria for participation, budgets, wages and hours worked, sales and products, and the prevalence of correctional industries sale of products to the private sector.
Abstract
In 2002, the last year in which correctional systems were surveyed about their correctional industries, the number of inmates employed in all areas of correctional industries was 54,854. In the current survey, the number of workers reported had declined to 42,533, with only 3,509 being females. Regarding eligibility criteria for participation in correctional industries, 19 of the responding systems reported that applicants must have obtained a high school diploma or GED diploma in order to be considered for employment. Five States will also accept applicants seriously working toward a GED. No remedial efforts to assist inmates who have not qualified for correctional industries employment were offered in 15 of the reporting systems. In the other systems, such assistance is in the form of schooling or vocational education classes. Five correctional systems were unable to provide established budgets for their correctional industries programs. For the others, the amounts budgeted total $995.8 million. Regarding wages and hours worked, inmates in Georgia and Texas are not paid for their work. Thirty-six of the responding systems compute wages on an hourly basis, ranging from a minimum of 2 cents in Louisiana to $3.00 in Maine. Depending on the job, inmates work at a minimum from 3.5 to 6.5 hours per day in New Hampshire, 5 hours in New Jersey, 58 hours in Virginia and from 1 to 10 hours in Nevada. A combined total of $982.6 million in annual sales was reported by all the reporting systems. Twenty-four systems sell their products to the private sector. 4 tables