Colorado Prisons Make Small Profit From Inmate Work Program
DENVER (AP) - Colorado prisons are making big profits from charging inmates for phone calls and other personal items, but they're struggling to break even from shops run by inmate labor to make furniture and other goods, according to a state audit.
The audit released Tuesday examined a division of the state prison system called Colorado Correctional Industries, which employs 1,600 inmates at 37 shops with the goal of providing them job training. Auditors said the small profits at those shops are a concern because CCI is intended to be financially self-sustaining and is supposed to partially reimburse the state for incarceration costs.
The shops inmates work at include manufacturing, where prisoners produce goods such as office furniture, license plates and state flags. Inmates also work at cow and buffalo dairies, and do fruit and vegetable farming.
The goods are sold to state agencies and sometimes the public.
While some shops are more profitable than others, the state audit found that, collectively, CCI made a profit of 1 percent in 2012 and 2013 from its inmate-run shops and lost about $10,000 in 2014. In contrast, canteen operations have averaged a 20 percent profit during those years.
With canteen operations, auditors took issue with how much inmates were being charged for phone calls. State law and department regulations say that service must be reasonably priced. However, auditors noted CCI collected $2.6 million in 2014 from the inmate phone system, of which $1.5 million was a profit. That's a profit margin of 58 percent, compared with a 13 percent profit margin for all other canteen sales, auditors said.
CCI management told auditors revenue from providing phone service helps fund inmate benefit programs.
Democrats and prison officials say the lack of profits at shops doesn't tell the whole story because the jobs give inmates valuable training for when they're released.
"What I emphasize is people, and the number of inmates that have gone through the industry's program and the training that they've received and the number that I've talked to that take great pride in what they're doing," said Rick Raemisch, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections.
State Sen. Cheri Jahn, a Democrat on the Legislative Audit Committee that was briefed on the report, agrees with Raemisch.
"This was set up to put our inmates to work so that they can actually be productive citizens when they come out," she said.
- By Ivan Moreno, AP Writer
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