• 53:41 - 58:12
Dr. Angela J. Hattery & Dr. Earl Smith | Policing Black Bodies, Prison Inc., & The Poverty Trap
Inmate Wages, Virginia Correctional Enterprises and Solitary Confinement
The guests clarify that while they support inmate work for skill-building, they oppose the exploitative wages of the current system. They cite examples from Virginia Correctional Enterprises where inmates earn 54 cents an hour making furniture that retails for hundreds of dollars. In some cases, an inmate must work three hours just to afford a single bottle of water from the commissary because the prison tap water is undrinkable.