What’s your last name, Jake?
So what happens if the inmate refuses to work? Do they put him in prison?
From my… “experience”, at a minimum security facility, if you refuse work, you lose “good time”, which here is 20% of your sentence, calculated every 3 months. Myself, I did not work. I slept in, watched TV and played cards all day, all while getting “lay in” pay. Basically, I got paid 40 cents a day to do whatever I wanted. The place I was at had no fences, I was allowed outside anytime from 9 am to 9 pm, but of course had to stay on the grounds. The reason I didn’t have a job was because I only had a short time to stay there, about 45 days. Other people did anything from picking up trash along highways, taking care of the upkeep of public places(parks, city buildings, etc), as well as cooking for the general population and cooking for a local Veterans Administration Hospital. Those who worked made anywhere from 60 cents a day, to a dollar a day, to a normal, minimum wage pay. I was there, believe it or not, for a hot check that I wrote when I was 18 years old. Anyways, that’s the story from someone who’s been there. As far as retirement age, I saw 70 year olds going out and working Monday through Friday. Maximum security inmates are not allowed to work. They are allowed a few hours out per day in their day room, where they can play cards or watch TV. Medium security inmates are only allowed to work on their prison grounds, those jobs being things like a librarian, a cook or a janitor. Minimum security is more like a college campus that you can’t leave.
Generally you’re going to lose privileges like watching TV or buying things from the commissary.
Maybe where you were incarcerated it works that way, but the max guys in our system do indeed have jobs. Some are fairly coveted and may pay $2-3/hr or so. Prison woodshop is popular, as is doing more complex building maintenance tasks. I’ve got inmates requesting I adjust their (often legitimate) work restrictions to allow them to work harder at these jobs.
As a complete tangent, I wonder how many still-licensed doctors and lawyers are active inmates in the prison system with a felony on their record. Not damn many, but I bet there are a few.
Probably. Licensing boards can act more slowly than the judicial system does at times.
One doc came into us convicted of murder. He was here for 3 months before the licensing board sent in a notice of suspension of his license. The had to wait for his criminal conviction to occur to take their action, and that took a bit of time.
Allow me to confirm what Qadgop has said; maximum security prisoners most definitely work.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources operates campgrounds, rental cabins, and lodges on Park land. Most of these are in great demand, and you need to make reservations, sometimes months in advance, to get good spots. The reservations phone center s operated by prison labor.
As noted, it’s probably impossible nowadays. But [url=O. Henry - Wikipedia]according to Wikipedia[/ur], O. Henry was employed as a prison pharmacist while he was in prison.