S tr e e t R o o ts •
News
oftte Oregw State Penitentear^
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Ja n . 6 -1 2 , 2 0 1 7
PH O TO BY JOE GLODE
Inside Oregon’s prison workforce
Do inmates leant valuable skills through work and education programs
m Oregon prisons? Or are they being exploited while paid slave wages?
Part I:
Exploitation or
opportunity?
Page5
Part II:
Education and
training
programs
Page 8
n S ep t 9, hundreds flooded
downtown Portland in protest of
profits made off the backs of
America s inmates, who are typically
paid less than a dollar an hour to work
menial jobs. The demonstration was in
solidarity with a national prison-worker
strike calling for an end to “prison
slavery.”
They call it slavery because, in
essence, it is. The 13th Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery,
but with one exception: as a punishment
for a crime.
In 1994, Oregon voters doubled-down
on prison labor when they passed Ballot
Measure 17, the Prison Reform and
Inmate Work Act.
The idea was that prisoners should
work just as hard as the taxpayers who
fund their incarceration, and they
should spend their time in prison
taking part in productive activities that
will help them re-enter society with
practical skills and work ethic.
In the years since, all physically able
inmates have been required to engage
in a full-time job or work-training
program. While education and treatment
ramS Can C0Unt toward an inmate’s
40-hour-per-week obligation, at least 20
hours per week must be work-related.
BY E M ILY GREEN and CORINNE ELLIS
A banner on the Facebook event page
for the Portland protest reads, “From
Alabama to Oregon, Prisoners are
Striking Nationwide September 9.”
In Portland, more than a dozen
advocacy groups co-sponsored the
march through downtown, targeting
companies known to use prison labor,
such as McDonald’s and Whole Foods.
And still the question remains: Are
prisoners in Oregon exploited for
corporate gains while making slave
wages working menial jobs, or are they
gaming skills that will help them
succeed after their release?
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