As we mark the passage of another Labor Day and honor workers in the United States, it is important to recognize an oft-exploited workforce: incarcerated individuals. Dr. Ronald F. Day, Fortune’s Vice President of Programs and Research, shared his thoughts on the use of prison labor and some key facts about the industry.  

Dr. Day pointed out just how ubiquitous products created by incarcerated laborers are: “People don’t know all of the types of things that are made in prisons. License plates have always been generated by incarcerated people in New York State; furniture that is found in offices of State agencies.”  

Nationally, incarcerated workers produce more than $2 billion worth of goods per year.  

Incarcerated workers also provide a range of services in different states, from cleaning public areas and roads to operating call centers for the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).  

“When I was incarcerated, people who were incarcerated were answering the phones for the New York DMV. When you’re making a call to the New York State DMV, you might be talking to someone who is currently incarcerated and you would have no idea,” said Dr. Day.  

He also thought that it may surprise people to know that incarcerated people are tasked with maintaining the correctional facilities they are detained in. Without incarcerated people holding these positions, the facility would not be properly cleaned, food would not be prepared and callouts for medical appointments would be disorganized, to highlight a few of the countless services that incarcerated people provide.  

“The people who are incarcerated are literally running the place that incarcerates them,” Dr. Day emphasized. “Prisons are run by incarcerated people and if it wasn’t for their cheap labor, prisons would not run.”  

The data underscores his point: incarcerated workers provide $9 billion per year in services for the maintenance of prisons that would need to be otherwise sourced and funded.  

Even though incarcerated workers are providing necessary labor, they are far from properly compensated. A report by the ACLU on prison labor found that the average hourly earnings of incarcerated workers are between 13 cents and 52 cents per hour. There are seven states where incarcerated workers are not paid at all for the majority of their work.  

While it may seem unconstitutional for incarcerated workers to be paid paltry wages, or to receive no income at all, and to not have access to the rights and protections of other American workers such as safety regulations and sick leave, Dr. Day pointed out that this enigma is inscribed in the Constitution.   

Dr. Day also highlighted that the disparate treatment of incarcerated workers continues long after their sentence has ended. Because of someone’s conviction history, they may continue to face barriers in hiring when they return to their community, even if they have significant experience in the field.  

He noted, “For any other [job] candidate, your skills are what matter when you’re being considered for the role. If you’ve been incarcerated, even if you did the exact same job, the only thing that matters is your record.”  

For example, in some states, incarcerated individuals are recruited to work in tandem with local fire departments. However, once individuals are released, regardless of their training and hands-on experience, many states bar formerly incarcerated people from even applying to become firefighters. 

“That discrimination sends the message that I’m not worthy to do this job in the community. I was able to work for the fire department when I was doing it for free, but as I come back to the community, and I’m as skilled or more so than anyone else, you tell me I can’t,” Dr. Day said. “How can we say we want people who were incarcerated to turn their lives around when they come home but then turn them away from the jobs they were forced to have while they were away but gained experience in?” 

To change the landscape of prison labor in New York, Dr. Day suggests expanding work release programs, which would give incarcerated individuals the opportunity to work for better wages and improve their chances of finding employment after their sentences end. He also supports efforts to close the forced work loophole in the Thirteenth Amendment with the hope of permanently ending the exploitation of incarcerated workers.  

To learn more about prison labor, consider these resources:  

“Captive Labor: Exploitation of Incarcerated Workers”  

“Corporations Are Making Millions of Dollars from US Prison Labor” 

“Prison Labor is Remarkably Common Within the Food System” 

“US Prison Workers Produce $11BN Worth of Goods and Services A Year for Pittance”  

“The Uncounted Workforce”