Robert Haas examines prison labor exploitation and how state-run industries generate millions of dollars while paying incarcerated workers pennies per hour.

Prison industries were sold to the public as rehabilitation—real jobs that teach skills and responsibility. In practice, many function as low-cost manufacturing arms for state governments, with incarcerated workers paid pennies while the programs generate tens of millions in revenue.

Corcraft, New York’s Division of Correctional Industries, is a prime example. It operates factories in over a dozen prisons, producing license plates, furniture, janitorial supplies, clothing, and even hand sanitizer during the pandemic. Incarcerated workers earn wages starting at 16 cents an hour and top out at around 65 cents; hazardous tasks like asbestos or mold removal may earn a $1.30 bonus. Yet Freedom of Information Act requests show Corcraft generated more than $340 million in sales to state agencies between 2009 and 2018, with annual revenue often hovering around $50 million.

The state is both employer and preferred customer; New York law gives Corcraft priority status, so public entities buy desks, lockers, and cleaning products from prison labor rather than the open market.

Other states run similar operations. Nationwide, prison industries produce more than $2 billion in goods and $9 billion in services each year, according to the ACLU’s 2022 Captive Labor report. Workers in these programs typically earn slightly more than those doing unpaid facility maintenance, but the jobs are often mandatory. Refusal can mean lost privileges, delayed parole, or, in extreme circumstances, solitary confinement.

Many incarcerated people say they have little choice but to sign up. Non-industry jobs pay even less, leaving them unable to buy toiletries, hygiene items, or supplemental food.

“You work Corcraft because the state food is bland and never enough,” one former New York prisoner explained. “You need the extra 30 or 40 cents an hour just to afford deodorant and ramen.”

Commissary markups and mandatory deductions for court fees and restitution often leave workers with less than half their already tiny gross pay.

Advocates call prison labor exploitation a loophole in the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery “except as a punishment for crime.” New York’s own constitution and statutes still permit forced labor, and Corcraft’s revenue flows back into the state budget.

A 2017 Gothamist investigation dubbed it “a $50 million manufacturing enterprise” powered by wages that would be illegal anywhere else. Legal Aid Society and Worth Rises attorneys have pushed for minimum wage laws, arguing that the state saves millions on labor costs while families and taxpayers absorb the human expense.

Even when programs claim to teach skills, the work is often rote assembly. One formerly incarcerated graphic designer in North Carolina’s Correction Enterprises described proofreading annual reports for 26 cents an hour, while the program posted $10 million in net income.

The profit motive behind prison labor exploitation is clear: Governments get cheap goods, while workers get just enough to survive inside and little to rebuild outside.