Des Moines Register
08-22-06
Work programs benefit victims, community, offenders
By GARY MAYNARD
IOWA VIEW
At the Iowa Department of Corrections, we hold offenders accountable for the
crimes they have committed in a number of ways. Offender labor is one of those.
We also rehabilitate offenders to become productive, law-abiding members of
society in a number of ways. Again, offender labor is one of those.
Offenders under our supervision have victimized not only innocent people, but
also their communities and Iowa taxpayers, who must foot the bill for the
enforcement, legal and correctional costs they have compiled along the way.
Performing community service is a way for offenders to pay back society.
Offender work also provides the community with a sense of justice - that the
criminal-justice system is fair and holds everyone accountable for his or her
actions.
At the same time, work programs help rehabilitate offenders by developing
positive work habits and skills and instilling in them the cleansing knowledge that
they are paying back society for the wrongs they have committed. Recent
evaluations of restorative justice programming confirm its rehabilitative benefits.
In addition to working within the prisons to help maintain and operate facilities,
Iowa inmates worked more than 645,000 hours in the community this past fiscal
year performing a wide variety of jobs, from putting up Christmas decorations to
cleaning neglected cemeteries, from helping build Habitat for Humanity homes
for the needy to helping rehabilitate older or injured thoroughbred racing horses
for adoption, animals that otherwise would be destroyed. The amount of
community-service work performed by offenders living and supervised outside
the prisons is even greater.
Last year, Gov. Tom Vilsack and the Iowa Legislature launched a new initiative Great Places - that utilizes the services of various state agencies to assist
selected municipalities in improving their communities. Corrections has signed on
to assist all of the communities with inmate labor.
Iowa Prison Industries also provides work opportunities, employing inmates to
manufacture products and perform services for state and local governments.
Prison Industries provides hands-on teaching of craftsmanship, and inmates
learn cooperation and teamwork. For fiscal year 2005, it provided jobs to more
than 800 inmates.
Private employers, in partnership with Iowa Prison Industries, also hire inmates.
They must pay prevailing wages, and inmates are allowed to keep 20 percent.
The rest goes to pay taxes, child support, victim compensation and restitution. In
fiscal year 2005, 232 inmates worked for private-sector employers.
A University of Baltimore study of five states, including Iowa, found that inmates
who participated in private-sector employment obtain a job after release
significantly sooner than other released inmates; retain their first employment
significantly longer; earn higher wages; and are re-arrested, convicted and
incarcerated at lower rates. An Iowa State University study confirmed the link
between employment and successful parole.
During fiscal year 2005, private-sector inmate employment in Iowa provided more
than $220,000 in federal taxes, $165,000 in Social Security taxes, $31,000 in
Medicare taxes and $79,000 in state tax revenue. In addition, these jobs
provided more than $256,000 in family and child support, $264,000 in restitution,
$128,000 in victim compensation and $740,000 in reimbursement to taxpayers
for the cost of incarceration.
Different people have different views as to the proper role of corrections. Some
believe that offender accountability is paramount. Others contend that
rehabilitation, both for the sake of the offender and public safety, is key.
Offender work programs enhance public safety and benefit victims, taxpayers
and, yes, offenders, too.
GARY D. MAYNARD is director of the Iowa Department of Corrections and
president-elect of the American Corrections Association.