The Associated Press via The Berkshire Eagle
COXSACKIE, N.Y. — Approaching the sprawling brick prison on a late weekday morning, correction officer Jerome Brantley detected the pleasing aroma of fish fry wafting down toward the chain link and razor wire fence: Lunch and, according to Brantley, the best food in Greene County. All of it courtesy of inmates.
The eight men wearing kitchen whites on the daily shift in the employee cafeteria get paid pennies, but it’s a sought-after job. They eat better than the other 1,000 prisoners in maximum-security Coxsackie Correctional Facility and learn a trade they can take home, enough of a start to maybe keep them from coming back.
“The pay stinks, but the food makes up for it,” Edward Pietro said from the prison in the Hudson Valley, about 20 miles south of Albany. The 42-year-old from Schenectady, who makes 18 cents an hour, worked in construction before his 2007 robbery conviction. He could be released in 2015. “People always got to eat. This right here would be something I could always fall back on.”
New York prisons instituted a mandatory work program in the early 1990s and most of their 56,000 inmates have jobs, earning as little as 10 cents an hour for work like routine cleaning. Prisoners who take calls for the Department of Motor Vehicles can earn up to the top wage of $1.14 hourly for answering basic customer questions like office hours, locations and DMV transaction requirements.
Inmate advocates say the pay, set in 1993, is far too low, though they acknowledge the overriding issue is providing meaningful work for prisoners, keeping them out of trouble and teaching vocational skills: For some, it’s their first legal job and experience on the clock.
“That’s what really controls recidivism,” said Cesar Loarca, a senior counselor at Coxsackie. Studies consistently show those who get jobs on the outside don’t return, he said.
A 2007 report by the National Research Council said informal social controls, such as work and marriage, are more effective than formal controls like parole supervision and re-arrest in reducing criminal behavior.
Prison jobs that pay more or teach vocational skills have far more applicants than openings, inmates said. Those who are capable are required to work, go to school or have another program. And yes, some inmates at Auburn prison still make New York license plates while others at Eastern Correctional transcribe educational materials into Braille for blind public and college school students.
“Idleness is really a problem not only for the inmates but for the staff,” causing increased violence and disruptions, said Jack Beck of the Correctional Association, an inmate advocacy group. “Jobs are very important. If you can’t get a job, how are you going to avoid criminal behavior?”
He added that most inmates are paid at the lower end, about 25 cents an hour, and commissary prices have risen over 20 years while wages have not. “If you’re getting paid 10 cents, it means nobody’s really valuing your work,” Beck said.
Prisons spokesman Peter Cutler said the state’s declining recidivism rates show the variety of programs work. Common programs range from high-school equivalency to addressing addictions and violent tendencies. The prisoner return rate for new convictions dropped from about 20 percent in the late 1980s to 10 percent two decades later.
$55.5 million in sales
The furniture, soap, garments and other goods manufactured by more than 2,000 prisoners system-wide are sold under the Corcraft label and had net sales of $55.5 million last year, which goes back to the state. State law prohibits Corcraft from selling to private entities for profit, so customers include the Corrections Department and the state police. Items include the boxer shorts, pajamas, socks and laundry bags made by 88 inmates in Coxsackie’s factory.
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