US prison workers produce $11bn worth of goods and services a year for pittance

Incarcerated workers in the US produce at least $11bn in goods and services annually but receive just pennies an hour in wages for their prison jobs, according to a new report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Nearly two-thirds of all prisoners in the US, which imprisons more of its population than any other country in the world, have jobs in state and federal prisons. That figure amounts to roughly 800,000 people, researchers estimated in the report, which is based on extensive public records requests, questionnaires and interviews with incarcerated workers.

In 2021, more than 51,000 people held industry jobs, accounting for 6.5% of prison labor, the researchers found. Those workers are paid 30 cents to $1.30 an hour on average. In Oregon, for example, the DMV pays incarcerated workers $4 to $6 a day, while a worker outside of prison doing the same DMV job makes an average of $80 a day.

Incarcerated workers in prison industries programs generated goods and services worth $2.09bn nationally in 2021, the authors found, citing estimates from the National Correctional Industries Association, a prison industry group. The researchers estimated that the maintenance work of prisoners is worth $9bn a year, but cautioned that there was no centralized data on the value of this work and that the figure was probably an undercount and a rough estimate from earlier studies.

The authors of the report are calling for extensive changes around the use of prison labor, including ensuring that such work is voluntary and provides workers with the same wages and protections granted to other workers as well as work programs that give incarcerated workers marketable skills and training.

Sam Levin contributed to this report