Prison inmate labor saves taxpayer money, build skills

Inmates slaughter cows and cut meat on Thursday, Jan. 14, at the Meat Processing Career Center located at the Pickaway Correctional Facility at Orient.

Chris Stewart/Dayton Daily News Staff Photogra Inmates slaughter cows and cut meat on Thursday, Jan. 14, at the Meat Processing Career Center located at the Pickaway Correctional Facility at Orient.

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Ohio Reformatory for Women prisoner Alpha Allison looks through glasses that were made at the prison in Marysville. Staff photo by Jim Noelker

JIM NOELKER/Ohio Reformatory for Women Ohio Reformatory for Women prisoner Alpha Allison looks through glasses that were made at the prison in Marysville. Staff photo by Jim Noelker

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By Laura A. Bischoff, Staff Writer Updated 10:54 AM Sunday, January 31, 2010

COLUMBUS — Ohio’s 51,000 prisoners use $2 million worth of toilet paper, drink 1.9 gallons of milk and eat more than 3 million pounds of beef a year.

Rather than buy it all from outside contractors — which could cost taxpayers millions of dollars more — the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction puts inmates to work, making everything from plastic bags to mattresses.

Inmates at Belmont Correctional Institution on the eastern edge of Ohio make toilet paper for prisoners and travelers at some highway rest stops — a new enterprise that saves the state $475,810 a year.

Women at the reformatory in Marysville craft eyeglasses for fellow inmates. Hard-core felons in London make dentures.

At the Pickaway Correctional Institution, inmates milk dairy cows and slaughter beef cattle. The prison meat plant is the only place you’ll find prisoners with sharp knives, large hacksaws and power tools. Not without supervision and surveillance cameras, of course, along with a metal detector at the door.

The milk and ground beef the inmates produce gets added to the recipes in 31 prisons across Ohio.

It costs DRC $1.50 to produce a gallon of milk, which is about one-third less than Meijer’s regular price of $1.98 a gallon. That alone amounts to nearly $1 million in savings each year.

Soap, socks, jackets, mattresses and bedding are all made for prisoners by prisoners. The operations cut costs and give inmates important job skills. OPI workers have a recidivism rate of less than half that of the regular prison population.

“Ohio Penal Industries provides an important opportunity for offenders to learn a trade,” said DRC Director Terry Collins.

OPI also uses inmate labor for contract work in the private sector, such as asbestos removal, furniture making, flag sewing and Braille transcription. OPI inmates earn 47 cents to $1.23 an hour.

Despite the benefits, layoffs are coming. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections plans to shutter several OPI shops, including one at Dayton Correctional Institution. OPI inmate jobs will drop to 1,269 from 1,554 by Feb. 28.

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