Behind the Razor wire

All States have prisons, many also have Federal prisons and federal prisons are run by federal employees whose job it is to follow the statutes set by the government. States on the other hand can be run as the states see fit with management entrusted with the task often powered by whatever political power in office at a given time and changing as administrations change. Also there are varying degrees of security from Minimum to maximum in some states this is usually 1 through 6 levels. 6 being the max camps, that are normally on lockdown most of the time with limited movement. Some, states, not all, use inmate labor to provide services and manufacturing processes to ease expenses to those agencies who, whole or in part are supported by taxpayer’s money, i.e. School districts, state agencies and even federal offices use the services provided at considerable savings to the taxpayer. I work for one of those service centers located in a fifth level prison camp, restoring furniture and manufacture various styles of furniture hand built to customer specifications. All state’s prison are over crowded, In federal prisons 57% are drug related and in 2003 there were close to 7 million people in prison in the U.S. The overcrowding is due in part by a law often referred to as “three time looser law” or three strikes and you’re out of society serving life without the possibility of parole or LOWP. Those inmates comprise a major portion of my workforce. I have (it varies) around 30 inmates under my direct supervision with a total of (again it varies) 150 inmates in the industries division duly sent daily to toil for .15 to .60 per hour. 75% of the inmates we employee are LOWP’s and this blog is about my daily contact with my states incarcerated misfits behind the razor wire.