I believe Prison Blues is a certified PIECP shop. That means they must pay the prisoners a wage equal to that paid to free workers doing the same work (this is called “wage parity”), and abide by a list of other regulatory requirements (work must be voluntary, must consult with local unions and private industry, etc.). PIECP goods can move in interstate commerce.
I’d be very hesitant to buy those. The clothing issued to prisoners in my state is largely made by female inmates at the state women’s prison, which means half the time you end up with sideways pockets, one leg being longer than the other, etc. 
Another reason the prisoners have to prove themselves reliable is because working in a metal shop gives the prisoners access to equipment that can be used in an escape, or even to build something to help them escape. I live near Florida State Prison, considered one of the toughest in the country. Several years ago prisoners in the industrial shops built a bulletproof tank (starting with a forklift as the basis) and used it to break out. That must have startled the guards! :eek:
In the Florida city where I lived, work assignments were voluntary. Prisoners who volunteered for road work were fed three meals a day. Prisoners who chose not to work received only two meals a day. The jail in DeSoto county served nothing but baloney sandwiches, three times a day. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment…
As I recall, inmate labor was also used to build Sing Sing from scratch, and the prisoners camped out in the open at night under heavy guard. I learned this from “Cell 202, Sing Sing”, a fascinating book written by the warden. It is based on the life stories of all four men who occupied this cell since it was built.
You are overlooking a significant part of their benefits package, which includes free room & board, medical treatment, educational benefits, and much more. The city of Fernandina Beach refused to jail a convicted criminal because her medical treatments ran nearly a quarter million dollars a year, which would have bankrupted the city. The national average cost to house a prisoner is $31,286. But the City of New York, determined to lead in all things, spends $168,00 a year to house each prisoner. :smack: I wonder if I could make a deal with them. For just half that, I could agree not to commit any crimes. Think of the money they could save!
New Hampshire is a state of irony. About 40 years ago, they sent a man to prison for covering “LIVE FREE OR DIE” with a piece of masking tape because he didn’t agree with it. I guess he’s lucky they didn’t give him the Chair.
When I lived in Decatur, Illinois 55 years ago, a local judge received license plates that were made and mailed to him by a man he had convicted. They said “YOU BUM”. 
I still have the original newspaper clipping about it, with a photo of the judge holding the plates.
In Colorado and some other Western states, some of the more trusted convicts are assigned to fight wildfires. Despite the fact that it’s a dangerous, very difficult job, it’s one of the coveted assignments.
Sam Cooke wrote “Chain Gang” when apparently during a tour in the 1950’s they drove past an actual chain gang - and he was disgusted, he could not believe they actually did that still. Of course, even in those days the prisoners all tended toward a particular hue. “Chain” gang because they were chained together like a bunch of animals.
Possibly, but that’s not really the reason why convicts were made to break rocks in the hot sun back in the day. Prison as a space for reforming and rehabilitating inmates is an idea that emerged sometime during the 50s (although efforts to make prison less horrible an experience had begun as early as the 20s).
E.g. the French bagne de Cayenne in French Guyana was called the “dry guillotine” for a reason (the worst and most well known of 'em really was on Devil’s Island, but there were numerous other work camps all across Guyana). Hard labour in harsh conditions, typically with poor food & sanitation on top is/was all about punishment and hopefully working the poor bastards to death. Reform was emphatically not part of the mission statement of the *bagne *- indeed, even after release prisoners could typically not come back to France.
You can get your dog trained by inmates in Colorado. You can also buy a government horse that was once a wild mustang and has been trained by inmates.* These are probably pretty plum assignments and not given to everyone but hearing about this just made me want to rob a bank or something.
In Kentucky, prisoners are taught masonry, specifically, how to make those stone walls you see all over Kentucky. It’s pretty much a lost art, and according to my information prison is the only place the craft is being taught these days. (I have no idea if there’s any demand for it, but those walls are pretty neat.)
*A friend of mine bought one. She had to do lots of additional training but this horse became one of her dressage horses. She called the horse “well started.”
It is commonly thought that Dartmoor was built by French POWs. In fact it was built by local tradesmen and was much delayed by labour disputes. The current building was constructed by prisoners and dates from the 1850s.
Of possible interest to some on this forum are the graves of the 271 Americans who died of disease there as prisoners after 1813.
Blagojevich is actually serving his federal sentence in Colorado, not Illinois.
‘Hard labour’ was part of the custodial sentence historically in the UK, thus breaking rocks was a common part of the prison routine in prisons like Dartmoor, etc. Wikipedia has an informative article on Penal Labour and its history in various countries.
Huh, that was cool. I imagine I’ve seen it before but I can’t remember it.
The rock crushing was often for public construction projects.
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/ge/convicts3.html
Which also seems the justification for recent attempts to revive the practice.
Gravel is comparatively cheap in today’s world but historically a good gravel pit near a populated area has a return on investment that is far better than the typical gold mine.
We almost went through that program (as dog adopters ). I think it’s a wonderful idea. But the logistics didn’t work out for us.
We ended up adopting two great dogs from other places.
Here’s a song that was missed. Rock around the Rock Pile Blues from The Girl Can’t Help It. It’s meta funny because you can tell it was a Tin Pan Alley type songwriter thinking he was being clever writing a “rock song” about a prisoner breaking rocks.
Prison as a space for reforming and rehabilitating is an idea that goes back hundreds of years:
If anything, the idea of paying for crime by making a payment goes back even further.