Living on $1.00/day: Prison Pay Scales in North Carolina
Should we change our compensation system?
In August of 2019, I visited two state prisons in North Carolina: Central Prison, the intake facility for all male felons over the age of 22 with sentences longer than 20 years, and the Correctional Institute for Women, which is the state’s primary correctional facility for women and houses the largest offender population in the state.
During these visits, I spoke with wardens, hospital administrators, nurses, safety officers, cafeteria workers, and inmates about what it is like to live and work in prison. I learned a lot from administrators and prison employees who spoke about the staffing crisis in our prisons and how inadequate funding prevents administrators from providing inmates with the enrichment they need to fully rehabilitate. Medical professionals explained how the opioid and mental health crises have created new and difficult challenges for care workers who are trying to treat cyclical patterns of addiction and poverty, and for many inmates who are struggling to get clean with a record that prevents them from finding good work.
I also learned a lot from inmates about the quality of life provided to people in the care of our prison system. I expected to hear some of their complaints, about the quality of the food or the amount of time they’re allowed to move about freely, but I didn’t expect to hear about their pay scale as much as I did.
None of the complaints struck me as much as the ones I heard at the women’s prison, where the only free soap provided to inmates is lye based. Many women complained about the soap’s effects on their own personal hygiene, citing rashes, mild burns, and discomfort. Their only other option? Purchase branded soap from the commissary for $1.00 or $1.50. That doesn’t seem like much, but when you’re only making 40 cents or a $1.00 a day, buying a bar of soap is a big hit on your budget. And what if your menstrual cycle is too heavy for the free pads provided by the prison and you need to buy more pads on that salary? What if you’re doing all you can to get a fresh start after your release? How can you save any money making $1.00 a day? While walking through the prison halls, I couldn’t help but wonder how I’d manage it.
Soon after I returned from the tours, I was contacted by the Duke Policy Research Lab, which asked me if I could provide their class with a research project. I requested that their team look into the compensation systems for our inmates and that they compare our state’s compensations system with those in other states. I’ve placed their final report in this article for constituents and interested parties to review. I was interested in their analysis because I don’t have the answers to all the issues that inmates and administrators are facing in our prison system, but I’m looking for them. And I’m trying to start conversations where I can.
If you have thoughts, questions, or experiences of your own with this issue, I hope that you’ll reach out to me and to my legislative office to discuss.
