AUGUSTA, Maine — Work crews of inmates from state correctional facilities are providing state agencies, as well as local schools and towns, with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of repairs, construction, road work, painting and other maintenance every year.
“We use 10 dollars an hour as a value for the labor,” Corrections Commissioner Joe Ponte said in an interview. “We have some jobs we do that are more sophisticated and the labor is worth more than that.”
For example, he said, there are work crews that overhaul surplus military vehicles and add tanks to carry water for the Forest Service. He said there are also inmates who make or remake furniture that has been used by the Department of Corrections and other state agencies.
“Some of those jobs are worth a lot more than painting a fence or clearing brush,” Ponte said. “If you put a better estimate on the value of the work we could be in the millions of dollars a year.”
He said in 2011 the work crews provided 39,201 hours for projects that ranged from remodeling offices to bridge maintenance for the Department of Transportation to clearing snow from the roofs of state and municipal buildings.
“It’s a good service, both for the community and for the inmates and crews that go out,” Ponte said. “The inmates feel good about giving back to the community.”
He said DOC provides crews for projects whenever they can, but that sometimes a request is denied on the advice of the Attorney General’s Office.
“We try to help as much as we can and do every project that we can do,” Ponte said. “We haven’t been able to do all that has been requested.”
The agency is on pace to significantly increase the number of hours provided by the inmate work crews. In 2010 there were 22,890 hours of projects provided by the work crews. In the first six months of this year, the crews have provided 21,160 hours of projects.
“I think it is important to stress it is not just anybody that is out on these crews,” said Rep. Gary Plummer, R-Windham, co-chairman of the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. “These are people who are trusties who have shown they can behave themselves. I think it is important for the public to know there is very little risk from these inmates.”
He said he is pleased the DOC is increasing the amount of projects inmates do. He said it follows a long tradition by county jails of providing work crews for local governments to do maintenance projects for schools and municipal facilities.
Eric Conrad, spokesman for the Maine Municipal Association, said he was not aware of the scope of the efforts by DOC and praised the assistance to municipalities.
“All the help that we can get is appreciated,” he said. “But in the scheme of things, with the cutback in state revenue-sharing funds and the fact K-12 education is nowhere near the 55 percent the voters mandated … No question it’s a help, but it’s not significant when compared to the cuts.”
Sen. Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, the Democratic senator on the Criminal Justice Committee, is a former co-chairman of the panel. He said the committee has urged DOC to increase its work crews for years and he is pleased it is doing that.
“There is a lot of misperception about the work crews,” he said. “Some criticize that they are taking away jobs. I don’t see it that way.”
Gerzofsky said the work crews are beneficial to the inmates and gives them a chance to use their skills and acquire new ones. He said the program is a win-win for the department because it improves morale of inmates while helping communities.
“There is also a lot of help for state taxpayers in some of the projects they do, “he said.
A good example of that is the Department of Transportation that has had three inmate crews working on bridge maintenance projects every month for more than two years.
Ponte said staff is always looking for ways to expand the number of projects done by the work crews throughout the state.
Sound advice to anyone Laid Of and Unemployement thats about to expire could be to commit a theft crime !
You either get away with the cash or you get free room and board!
Win Win !! Either way!
The breakeven point is $50k which is about what it costs to incarcerate for a year.
Doubtful that their labor come even close.
It doesn’t.. No one said it did.. But if it saved 10K on a project, we will take the savings won’t we.. or is that just cigar money and not worth doing?
Of course it doesn’t, but the state has to feed and clothe the prisoners regardless of whether they’re working or sitting in a cell, so why not make good use of their abilities.
True. We pay either way. Might as well have some of these guys working instead of being indoors watching reality tv or whatever else they might watch.
For those who think none of the inmates can be rehabilitated, I personally know of an inmate who took some very difficult classes on the theory of music and now he teaches music at the prison. As far as I know, it’s the first such program in the prison.
lets see about 2,000 hours in the average work year the worked about 39,000 hours like 20 men on average. Out of the 1000s in jail only 20 working?
time to bring back the days of the prisoner work camps
Like Wal-Mart?
Don’t trash Wal-Mart until you know what you’re talking about!!!
LOW PAID STATE WORKERS SAVE THE TAXPAYERS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS
How much does it cost for the officer to oversee the couple men at each worksite? Is this additional guards or does a guard on duty take a couple men out and leave those left behind on the honor system. Really who would or could believe that there is not an additional cost attached to taking these men out of prison — does it equal the ten dollars an hour saved … What does a guard or two get paid an hour?
The state may be saving tax dollars but it’s doing so at the expense of jobs that would otherwise be performed by taxpayers. By the way, part of their income would have gone right back to the state as income tax and sales tax for goods purchased. Bet nobody used those figures in the calculations about tax savings. I wonder how many of the displaced Maine workers (who were replaced by inmates) are on state benefits. That’s another figure to work into the calculations to see are what the true tax savings.
We could but it would be minimal at best.
I knew someone would mention it takes away from a unionized government job. with benies and a pension.. Pensions for State employees cost the Maine Taxpayers 1/2 billion ++ per year.. Prisoners don’t have State pensions or benies when released.
There is NOTHING in 66readerwriter’s comment about state employees.
Looks like your “button” got pushed by a really quick skim of that comment, in which you saw the words “jobs” and “state benefits”, and started riding your hobby horse about state workers… people you appear to envy and hope to bring down to your level (s0 much easier than joining with your own fellow workers and advocating for yourselves to get better working conditions, pay, and a pension).
66r-w was saying that non-inmate Mainers need jobs. These jobs under discussion were done by inmates instead of being offered to the general population. The non-inmate folks who need work thus did not have a shot at these jobs. As a result, they might need “state benefits” (=welfare). The money the non-inmate folks could have earned by doing those jobs would have been spent in their communities, and the taxes on their income and expenditures would have been revenue for the state.
Thanks for explaining that to pushthebutton…common sense seems to be lacking there.
Why shouldn’t state workers receive pensions…and benefits. I earned my master’s degree and thereby upped my potential earnings…isn’t that the name of the game? Did you happen to read the article in Sat.’s paper on educational attainment and how it DIRECTLY relates to earnings? Isn’t that one reason we strive to up our test scores to compete with other countries (and each other)? Isn’t that why we have one of the highest standards of living in the world? Don’t educate the youth and you’ve got another Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Libya, etc. on your hands. Common sense goes a long way…think about it.
I have to think that prisoners cost the State far more than they contribute.
Of course they do. So let them just rot in a cell and not pay back anything.. I’ll take 30 cents on the dollar over zero cents
I agree with you 100%…3 meals a day, tv. exercise room, library, nice bed….who exactly pays for that??? My tax dollars….and THEY are saving ME tax dollars…
Wow – I never knew that prison was such a wannerful place.
Everyone must want to go there.
ugh
The article fails to mention the 3 meals a day, basketball time and television viewing and they don’t pay anywhere as much as they would if they were on their own.
lol, you’ve never been to jail have ya? If you believe for one moment that they sleep on a nice bed, i would suggest a visit there. the exercise room? hardly a Planet Fitness or Golds. And if you enjoy bologna sandwiches, and food that i wouldnt feed to a dog, well yeah, they are living high off the hog then…they are prisoners and anyone that believes they enjoy these surroundings just has never been to jail. Then again, if you are eating out of garbage cans and sleeping on the cold pavement, it probably seems like the Hilton.
Then don’t go there! It’s not supposed to be Planet Fitness or Serta or Sirloin.
Food I wouldn’t feed my dog?
Feel free to point to one jail here with food as you describe it. I’ll be glad to go check it out.
Thanks for boiling it down once again to $. You don’t care about much else, do you. I’ll bet the guards love these work programs. It should decrease violence in the prisons, by giving inmates a constructive outlet. And it also saves taxpayers money. Win, Win. Unless all you look at is the bottom line.
You sure know a lot about everything, even what makes me tick. And thank God for all of the prisoners that are saving us all of this money and decreasing violence and all of the good things that prisoners do.
And, if I remember correctly, YOU are the one that posts that the “welfare cheats and dishonest benefit receipients” should be punished and jailed. And that all of those who do receive a benefit should have to work for it or pay for it somehow. You can’t have your cake and eat it to…..Mrs Tea Party, I’m sure you are finding that out. It’s a good program, it saves tax money and it assists in societal rehabilitation for those less violent offending inmates. Use your head for something other than planning a make believe tea party.
Not in the long run
“The inmates feel good about giving back to the community.”
I find this remark… dubious.
None of them are guilty either!
“The criminal taketh, and now they giveth back”…must be biblical….
But whats the cost of boarding them with health care. Pretty good career, where do you work Warren, Me. Job title we save the taxpayers thousands. Where do we do we sign for employment. Just rob a bank and you will get in fast with benefits. Starting pay 15 to 20 and its up to the judge.
I wonder how much it cost when that kid ran off for three days last month. I wonder how much was spent on trying to track him down before he was found? I know that doesn’t happen all that much, but just one time is thousands of taxpayer dollars I’m sure.
Gotta play devil’s advocate here. What happens if one of them gets hurt on the “job” ?
they must already have medical care because they are in prison.
its called a law suit
Don’t give LePage any ideas.
He’ll put us all on the Chain Gang to pay for his tax cuts for the 1%.
Yessah
“gonna put you ALL in chains!!!”
The US has way too high of an incarceration rate to begin with, but I do think this kind of stuff helps criminals feel like they’re making a first step in righting their wrongs. I’m just guessing here, but that could be a good thing because it would likely lead to lower rates of re-incarceration.
There is no evidence of that, but a flowery thought…….
Um, the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world.
There are people that wants to put anyone in jail for breaking any law
In an ideal society these jobs would provide an income for the working poor. This income would provide a entry level position where a young man could build self esteem while learning a trade or other job skills. Instead our society incarcerates more people than any society on earth and we continue to develop a prison system as if it is a solution to our economic problems instead of the curse that it actually is. Young people are going to find ways and means to provide for their families. The more difficult society makes it to find work the more people will resort to other means of income. The black market built up around drugs bring many into a system that continues to label our young as criminals. Rather than young people struggling in an increasingly difficult society. The current governor’s biggest contributor to his campaign was and is the privatized prison industrial complex yet this is seen as a solution rather than a curse. We continue to close mental health and/or drug treatment centers and then act frightened because the amount of people being jailed increases. Society needs to look at its roots instead of blaming the poor who are on the fringes of society. Imprisoning our young will only continue the slide that this country has been experiencing. The answer is to create jobs not more laws designed to imprison more of our young citizens.
You are very right here, half our laws need to be repealed or looked over.
I like your comment…I’ll hit “like” too, but it certainly does ring true and makes a lot of sense what you’re saying…now to make it happen!
We should of been doing this for years as they have in the south. If the state can benefit at all, its a good thing. Better than the convict sitting around watching TV or playing cards all day and doing nothing that helps improve them and the public. I say the more projects, the better. They learn and labor and maybe stay out of jail.
Maybe the guards could stop and pick up a few of the panhandlers and offer them work for a free meal. It would be a good test to see just how hungry these people really are.
“These are people who are trusties who have shown they can behave themselves. I think it is important for the public to know there is very little risk from these inmates.”
Care to share the process that determines that? As of recent news articles it seems there is a flaw in that process when you got someone who just leaves a work site. You just had one walk off a detail in Leeds…..
You have read that prisoners are used to make phone calls for telemarketing companies. One employer said, “Why not, I need someone who is going to be there every day.” And of
course prisoners work cheap.
Some say that prisoners are taking away jobs that could help some unemployed Maine person to get off food stamps.
Please note, however, that our incarcerated neighbors are not doing jobs that would eliminate the profit some company makes by feeding them.
The last I heard Maine prisoners are no longer raising their own beef, potatoes, and eggs as they once did on the Warren farm — back before corporate America discovered there was money to be made by shutting down the prison farm and privatizing the delivery of nutrients to inmates.
The humble Farmer
Why are we paying them at all? Wouldn’t it make them feel better about themselves if they were volunteering and learning about charity? I would much rather be working than sitting in a cell. Also, perhaps we could get welfare recipients to do a little work for their handouts.
Where does it say the inmates are getting paid? FYI they don’t, other than maybe $40 or$60 a month placed into their accounts.
Inmates cost taxpayers in Maine $47k a year. Yes, they live in a 4×6 or 4×8 cell. The new facilites are clean. they have the options of going to school & getting a degree or learning a trade. They also clog up our court agendas with their many appeals. When they are allowed out on the Work Release Program they are paid the prevailing wage that other working employees in that job are making. Not minimum wage! The resivitism rate is still very high in this state. So I find it very hard to believe that work crews are saving taxpayers Hundreds of thousands of dollars!!! It just doesn’t add up.
Especially in these economic times where many unemployed laborers or tradesmen could be doing this work. But instead they are collecting unemployment or living in shelters and they haven’t committed crimes!
I agree!
those “hundreds of thousands a year” that we supposedly save costs more for us overall.
that money could be instead going to a maine company that hires mainers to do the work. supporting people that need it, not prisoners!
You are wrong. They do NOT get the “prevailing wage.” They merely get $40 or $60 per month, added to their spending accounts.
I’m sorry to say you are misinformed. I work with two of the prisons in the state directly and I know what I am required to pay as an hourly wage. The prison last winter began to charge the inmates 20% of their gross earnings across the board. That way those making $8.50hr would not pay the same as those making $11.00hr. That 20% goes for board & room. Then a % goes to pay their fines, child support and other outstaqnding bills they need to pay off. The rest goes into their account on a weekly basis.
Great plan Mr. LePage…. Putting these guys to work.
Good… Make the meth makers and crack heads pay their way…
I think they all should work about 16 hours a day,7 days a week. Might make them think twice about commiting a crime next time.
We cant, we need to coddle and nurture them…..We cant punish them…..Super Petey from Searsport would agree….
Good idea till some one gets hurt an than the law suit comes
Then lets have more prisoners ..The liberals think they are sAVING THE TAXPAYERS MONEY….ohhhhhhhhhhh LIKE WIND POWER
That’s why the Republicans want to privatize prisons, school, social security…There’s a lot of money to be made there….
good thing. keeps them busy. gives them selfworth. teaches them a jobskill for when they get out . they should set up somethning for female inmates
they shouldn’t be paid for their labor.
if anyone should be paid, it should be mainers that are hired to do the work.
not prisoners that committed crimes.
Arrghh-MEN
So that’s where all the jobs are–in jail!! Open for business, lol.
Good, keeping these menaces to society busy doing something productive..
Where does it say they are being paid or do some of you” insiders” know something that isn’t in the article?
They aren’t taking a job from someone because it’s probably not costing much to do it. To take a job away you would have to be spending money for the job.
Do you see anything wrong with saving the taxpayer some money?
I’d be a lot more impressed if the program were 10 times larger than it is but it’s a start.