Zachary Crockett
speaker
79 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jan 2025
last heard Jan 2025
Zachary Crockett’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Prisoners have sewed underwear for Victoria's Secret, worked in call centers for cell phone companies, and made cheese that was sold in Whole Foods.
An investigation by the Associated Press found that food produced on penal farms ends up in popular products like Frosted Flakes cereal, Gold Medal flour, and Ballpark hot dogs. Companies don't just save money on labor costs. They often earn tax credits for hiring work-release prisoners. All of this makes prison labor a great deal for taxpayers, governments, and private businesses.
And the idea is that prisoners gain key skills.
Brian Scott served 20 years in prison for a sex crime before being released in 2021. For most of that time, he was at the Nash Correctional Institution in North Carolina, and he was working at a printing facility run by Correction Enterprises.
I read on the site that they even did report cards there for high schools and colleges.
The printing facility was staffed by around 130 prisoners. And the day-to-day work was similar to what employees at any other printing facility would do. Except, in exchange for his labor, Scott was only paid 26 cents an hour.
Every Sunday, Scott's weekly earnings, around $14, were transferred into a trust fund controlled by the prison. And he says getting full pay wasn't guaranteed.
Most incarcerated people use their money to buy stuff at the commissary or canteen, a store inside the prison.
Scott says many people with prison jobs took on side hustles to supplement their income.
Scott had an operation making incense sticks in his cell. He'd sell them for one postage stamp, which was a form of currency behind bars.
Aside from the pay, Scott says his time at the printing plant was a tolerable experience. But toward the end of his sentence, he was transferred to another Correction Enterprises facility, where he refurbished traffic signs. And that was a different story.
The people who run prison labor programs often say that working at their facilities is a choice and that if a prisoner doesn't like a certain job, they're free to find other work inside the prison. But this freedom often comes with a catch. The New York Times recently reported that prisoners in an Alabama facility who refuse to take on work release jobs often face disciplinary action.
Again, here's law professor Laura Appelman.
Appelman also says that because prisoners aren't considered employees, they aren't covered by employment protections, things like workplace safety regulations and workers' comp in case of injury. But some incarcerated workers believe that prison labor will pay off for them down the line.
Work programs are often positioned as a solution to recidivism, the tendency of convicted criminals to reoffend. The idea is that the skills you learn on the inside will help you land on your feet once you're out. Lee Blackman of Correction Enterprises made that point during a walkthrough of the sign plant in North Carolina.
The evidence that prison labor helps incarcerated people find jobs once they're back out in the real world is mixed. Many companies won't even consider hiring people with felony convictions. And more than 60% of people who are released from prison are unemployed a year later. But it does work out for some people, including Brian Scott.
After he was released in 2021, he quickly found a civilian job in the printing industry.
Christopher Barnes, the incarcerated worker at the sign plant in Bunn, North Carolina, will never see that kind of paycheck. He's in prison for life with no possibility of parole. For him, the benefit of working a job in prison isn't the pay, the chance to learn new skills, or the promise of a brighter future.
It's the brief moment of respite he gets from the cell block each morning, before the machines fire up and the highway signs are cut to size.
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