‘Prison insourcing’ has grown popular as a cheap alternative to offshore outsourcing. Sadly, we call for a $15 minimum wage for workers on the outside when inmates rarely get more than a few dollars an hour for their work in facility maintenance or government-run prison factories. Suppose you listen to the stories of former inmates. In that case, many will focus on the hustle - what they needed to do to get the money they needed to buy overly expensive food and essential everyday items like hygiene products. Labor and job-related training are keys to reducing recidivism, but not at slave wages. Suppressed wages result in a need for more inmates, not less, and incentivizes those motivated by profit to increase the pool of cheaply paid inmates. This must end.

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