Higher Wages for Inmate Workers?
It was 1998 when Hector B. Custodio first worked for Corcraft, the internal manufacturing arm of the New York state prison system. He was paid 12 cents an hour.
Custodio was locked up at the Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock, in upstate New York. The Corcraft factory there produced soap. As workers were assigned to different parts of the process, Custodio was in charge of mixing soap ingredients to produce 1000 bars of soap a day.
Two years later, Custodio was transferred further north, to the Clinton Correctional Facility, and there again he worked for Corcraft. Along with 50 other men, he made about 200 to 300 pants a day for a starting wage of 15 cents an hour.
“I was sewing, making pants, prison garments and was eventually getting 27 cents an hour, which was the highest you could make there,” he said.
Earlier this year, State Senator Zellnor Myrie proposed a bill to raise the minimum wage for New York prisoners to $3/hour. To Senator Myrie, the fact that New York’s incarcerated contribute tens of millions of dollars in revenue to the state and haven’t gotten a pay increase in more than a quarter century is unacceptable.
“Incarcerated people are human beings and they deserve to be treated with dignity,” Senator Myrie told The Gotham Grind. “They deserve to share in the fruits of their labor.”
Corcraft employs nearly 2,000 inmates at any one time, according to the Department of Corrections. For less than a dollar an hour, these inmates produce office furniture, uniforms, cleaning supplies, and of course license plates, among many other things. The company sells these products to universities, schools, courts, prisons, and other state agencies. Their annual revenue in 2014 was roughly $48 million.
Fourteen of 54 prisons and jails in New York State are equipped with Corcraft factories.
Rachel Connors, a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections, said that incarcerated individuals are paid wages for the grade of job they are qualified for and assigned to. “Inmate wages range based on their education and skill set learned throughout their time in the program,” she said.
Asked for her response to Senator Zellnor Myrie’s proposed Prison Minimum Wage bill, Corcraft said the Department does not comment on proposed legislation.
In 2000, Darren Mack, like Custodio, made office chairs for Corcraft at the Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville, New York. He was paid 20 cents an hour.
“Actually the chairs were just like the one I am sitting on,” he said, pointing to his chair at the JustLeadershipUSA office in Harlem, where he now works.
In 2001, Mack was transferred to the Clinton Correctional Facility, where he made uniforms for inmates. He had mixed feelings about the job. “On the one hand it was the highest paying job in prison,” he said. “On the other hand you were not even making minimum wage.”
Mack said he believes the bill as proposed does not raise the wage far enough. Custodio agrees.
“You are a human being, you are working and should be paid accordingly,” Custodio said.
According to Alex Friedmann, an expert on the privatization of correctional services, most prisoners want to work in the prison industry programs because of the pay. “Even though it’s a dollar an hour, these programs usually have wait lists,” he said. But, Friedmann said, this does not change the fact that prison officials are exploiting prison labor.
To Jarrell Daniels, who was incarcerated in New York prisons from December 2012 to January 2018, Corcraft is a privilege. “It is just in a few select prisons, so only the fortunate get to work for it,” he said.
Daniels was denied enrollment in Corcraft for not meeting its disciplinary criteria.
“If you are ineligible for Corcraft, which most people are, you will be cleaning prison cells and mess halls for much less,” he said.
