Alabama DOC Raising Inmate Labor Rates
The Alabama Department of Corrections began in October 2007 charging cities, counties and other governing bodies for labor done by prisoners, such as picking up trash along highways. That price will go up by 50 percent in October as the department seeks to close a gap in funding, according to the Birmingham News.
This year, there is a $43.3 million difference in the funding the corrections department gets from the state of Alabama and the amount it takes to run the system. The department narrows the gap by charging for inmate squad labor, raising revenue through the prison work release program and other steps. On Oct. 1, the start of fiscal 2010, the rate will increase from $10 per inmate, per day to $15.
For one agency, the Alabama Department of Transportation, the rate has already more than doubled. ALDOT started paying for inmate squads in the spring of 2007, and until recently was paying $20. In February, the rate rose to $50 per inmate per day, Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett said … Corrections Commissioner Richard Allen has estimated that the new rates will bring in about $3 million each year …
[In 2007], according to the department’s annual report, inmate squads from 14 state prison facilities performed 103,000 man-hours per month, “equivalent to a labor savings of almost $6 million to government agencies within the state.” In the spring of 2007, Allen said he got permission from Gov. Bob Riley to begin charging for the work squad labor. He put his plan into operation in the year’s final quarter, when the department asked the state and local agencies to consider paying. More than $15,000 in fees came in … That $15,000 sum was dwarfed by fees earned in fiscal 2008. In that year, Corbett said, inmate squads worked more than 1.3 million hours and generated nearly $1.2 million in fees. If the inmates had been working for minimum wage, the fees would have amounted to more than $6.9 million, Corbett said. Unlike inmates in work release, who generally keep 60 percent of what they earn in civilian jobs, those on the work squads earn $2 a day.