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State tries to keep inmates busy to lower return rate

Recidivism rate for those in OPI much lower than inmates in the general population.

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By Laura A. Bischoff, Staff Writer Updated 10:50 AM Sunday, January 31, 2010

COLUMBUS — While they’re not wearing striped uniforms and busting rocks on a chain gang, Ohio’s 51,000 state prisoners are required to do more than lounge in bed and watch TV all day.

“Offenders are required to either work, go to school or participate in programming such as educational, recovery services,” said state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) spokeswoman JoEllen Smith.

The policy helps inmates learn marketable job skills for when they’re released and it keeps the felons busy while they’re in prison.

But with Ohio’s prisons stuffed with 30 percent more inmates than they’re designed for, there’s only so much work to go around.

The premium jobs are with Ohio Penal Industries (OPI), which pays 47 cents an hour to $1.23 an hour and offers a chance to learn. While DRC has an overall recidivism rate of 38 percent, OPI inmates return to prison only 18 percent of the time. The lower rate could be attributed to job skills learned at OPI or to the caliber of inmates who are screened and hired by OPI.

While serving 20 months for burglary, Nick Fortney, 23, of Columbus, made a point of learning how to operate every machine on the processing floor as well as how to de-bone and butcher at the DRC meat plant at Pickaway Correctional Institution in Orient.

Fortney, who was scheduled to be released at the end of this month, said he plans to work for his grandfather’s hauling business but will also look for work in a meat processing plant elsewhere.

“I’ve got nothing tying me down when I leave here,” he said.

Like most states, Ohio has a long history of using inmates to get work done.

In the 1800s, inmates from the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus built the foundation and ground floor of the Ohio Statehouse until skilled tradesmen objected to losing the work. Inside the Ohio Pen, prisoners manufactured silk hats, barrels, shoes and brooms.

Ohio inmates routinely did work for private contractors as a way for the state to defray prison expenses.

By 1877, though, prison reformers launched a campaign to do away with the practice. In 1884, lawmakers replaced contract prison labor with a system where state institutions and the public could purchase inmate-made goods. The new law restricted prison industries from direct competition with private manufacturers and required that convicts be trained in employable skills.

In 1906, Ohio passed another law that created OPI and restricted the sale of prisoner-made products to state and other government agencies.

These days, OPI employs 1,554 inmates — soon to be 1,269 once cuts are made at the end of February — and does roughly $30 million in annual sales. The argument against inmate labor today is the same one made 130 years ago: the cheap labor unfairly undercuts private competition and takes away jobs on the outside.

The argument in favor of using inmate labor is that it keeps inmates busy and teaches prisoners job skills. Advocates also note that prisoners producing toilet paper, soap, clothing and food for prisoner use cuts costs for taxpayers.

“OPI plays a vital part of the overall success in the operations of our agency. It is clear by the amount of services and goods provided that we depend heavily upon OPI to meet our everyday needs,” said DRC Director Terry Collins. “In an agency with 31 prisons and nearly 51,000 offenders, those daily needs such as toiletries, clothing and food can be significant.”

Contact this reporter at  (614) 224-1624 or  lbischoff@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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