Street R o o ts* Jan. 6-12, 2017
News
PART I: Exploitation or opportunity?
Page 5
Continued from page 4
BY E M ILY GREEN
S T A FF W R IT E R
here are no private prisons in
Oregon, and while protesters hit the
streets of downtown Portland on
Friday, Sept. 9, by and large, Oregon’s
inmates showed up for work like any other
day.
Two prison officials who oversee inmate
work programs within the state both said
they received no reports of inmate workers
protesting or causing disruptions on the day
of the nationwide strike.
Several fringe media outlets reported that
Oregon State Penitentiary was on lockdown
that day and that inmate workers in the
kitchen at Deer Creek Correctional
Institution in Madras either went on strike
,or were put on pre-emptive lockdown,
depending on the source. The Oregon
Department of Corrections, however, denied
any participation in the strike within the
walls of its institutions.
“There were not any disturbances related
to the national prison work strike in
September, or otherwise,” wrote Betty
Bernt, DOC spokesperson, in response to
an inquiry about those reports.
Oregon’s prisoners work in four different
capacities: for the Department of
Corrections in jobs needed for a prison’s
a
daily operation, such as in the kitchen or
janitorial; in a variety o f work-training
programs; on DOC-run work crews that
primariLyperform. landscaping or cleaning
d u tie s o n publicly o w n ed lan d s; o r for
Oregon Corrections Enterprises.
Oregon Corrections Enterprises is a
semi-independent state agency that was
created to help the state’s prisons come
into compliance with the requirement that
all able-bodied inmates be put to work.
It operates a network of 28 businesses
inside 11 of Oregon’s 14 state prisons.
It operates five laundry facilities and
seven “contact centers,” or call centers, as
well as a garment factory that makes the
blue jeans prisoners wear; welding shops;
sign fabrication, printing, scanning and mail
service shops; upholstery, sewing and
embroidery studios; and a furniture
manufacturing business.
But more inmates work in the laundries
and contact centers than all of Oregon
Corrections Enterprise’s other operations
combined.
Inmate Jon Meyer a t his desk in the contact center a t Oregon State Penitentiary.
s e e - t h r o u g h w a lls o f t h e c u b ic le s , it w a s lik e
D o d g e i n S a l e m , s a i d h e ’s h i r e d s e v e r a l
any o th er office.
fo rm e r in m a te s w ho h a d w o rk e d ift th e
p riso n ’s call c e n te r. H e sa id th e y ’ve b e e n
Like most mornings, inmates were
able to transfer the sales skills they learned
contacting businesses in an attempt to get
telemarketing to selling cars at his
the person on the other end of the line to
agree to accept an informational email about dealership.
Withnell, who describes himself as ultra
a business product, such as a software
conservative, chairs Oregon Corrections
upgrade.
-,
Enterprises’ Advisory Council. He said he
As easy as this sounds, anyone who s ever
worked in telemarketing will tell you: It isn’t. believes inmates are learning the soft skills
they need to be successful on the outside -
Inmates typically get a “yes” just two or
skills such as punctuality and work ethic.
three times a day.
“The past 10, 20, 30 years, there’s been a
“There is high turnover,” OSP contact
change of philosophy for the end goal of
center manager Bruce Potts said. “Not
lowering recidivism, and so instead of
everybody likes telemarketers, and they can
locking someone up and throwing the key
be very rude to people. These guys are told
away, it’s to teach and to give skill sets
‘no’ on a constant basis, so that’s a
inside,” he said.
struggle.”
But to work, there have to be employers
Potts had 85 inmates on staff that day,
willing to hire former inmates after their
but said he’d like to be at full capacity with
release.
110 agents.
“To hire re-entry people, I believe you
For inmates who are successful, Potts
have to build the reason why,” Withnell said.
said, a job in the call center is one of the
“One is the transformation of an individual,
most beneficial career opportunities that
Oregon Corrections Enterprises
but there is also a hard return on
Oregon Corrections Enterprises offers. It’s
investment because once a person is hired
Street Roots visited Oregon State
also one of the best paying, with inmates
and rebuilding himself, the recidivism rate
Penitentiary in Salem. It’s a maximum-
typically earning about $150 to $200 a
drops significantly.”
security prison housing 2,000 of the 14,700
month. That’s almost enough to buy a
When inmate Jimmy Kashi, 37, first came
13-inch TV or acoustic guitar from the
, inmates living in Oregon’s state-run
to
Oregon State Penitentiary, he said he
prison commissary after one month of full
correctional institutions.
worked as a “table wiper ’ in the kitchen for
It also houses Oregon Corrections
time work.
the Department of Corrections. Now, nearly
Enterprises’ largest laundry and second-
It’s also more than double what many
a decade into his life sentence, he’s found
other full-time inmate jobs in Oregon’s
largest ^contact center.
stability and a job he said he enjoys in the
In an expansive carpeted room that
correctional institutions pay.
call center.
stretched from one end of the building to
“A lot of the skills that they learn in here
He said initially the higher pay attracted
the other, the contact center’s rows of
C3n transition to any kind of job and can
him,
but he also liked having the
help them in their day-today life too. They
identical cubicles sat beneath fluorescent
opportunity for advancement In the four
lighting and exposed air ducts At each desk
have to learn how to communicate, how to
years he’s worked there, he’s reached the
talk and how to take rejection,” Potts said,
sat an inmate wearing a navy blue T-shirt,
highest position available to inmates as one
adding
that
many
call
centers
on
the
outside
jeans and a headset watching a computer
of the six trainers in the center, earning
monitor, reciting his personalized sales
are “felon-friendly.”
about $265 a month.
pitch. Aside from the casual dress code and
Dick Withnell, former owner of Withnell
“B e in g a b le t o r e a c h o u t t o
people -in the-
o u t s i d e w o r ld f r o m in h e r e is d e f in it e ly a
g o d se n d in m y p o sitio n ,” h e said, “b e c a u s e I
a m goin g to be in c a rc e ra te d fo r a w h ile. T h e
ability to have conversations with people
from all over the nation is absolutely
exciting.”
Before Jon Meyer was incarcerated, he
was a manager at Wal-Mart and also worked
as a bar manager, a bouncer and a truck
driver. He doesn’t plan on finding call
center work when he’s released in three
years.
He said working in the contact center
helps him support his kids with the $150
per month he expects to earn. Luckily, he
said, the mother of his children is financially
stable.
, ♦
While prison wages may be enough to
buy items from the commissary, inmates we
spoke with said it’s difficult to support their
children or save enough money to have a
substantial nest egg to help them get on
their feet after release.
But for Meyer, going to work is like
leaving'prison.
“The environment is really awesome, the
staff is really cool, so I enjoy it,” he said.
“Outside of a job like this, inside these walls
you tend to stick to your people, or people
that you’re comfortable being around. So
being out here, it expands your mind.”
Since the contact center at OSP opened
in 2011, its only client has been Advice
Brands, a Nashville, Tenn.-based marketing
company that previously contracted with
overseas call centers. Slowly, it began filling
positions at OSP instead - so the call center
isn’t competing with local jobs - and that’s
important
See INMATE JOBS, page 9