For the first time, those incarcerated at the Allegheny County Jail are being paid for the work they do.
The program began March 25. During the first week, according to Deputy Warden Connie Clark, 377 people were paid.
The remuneration was for providing vocational services — like cleaning, cooking, painting, working on the loading dock and other tasks — as well as for attending educational classes and re-entry programming, Clark said.
“We’re hoping we can lay down foundational skills they can take with them when they leave the jail.”
Vocational trainees receive $5 per day. Those attending classes receive $2 per class, Clark said.
The money is deposited into the workers’ jail accounts, which they can use for commissary, tablet time or phone calls.
If the person is released prior to using the money, they are given a check with the balance when they leave the jail, Clark said.
The first payments will be deposited next week.
“This is a good thing for this facility,” Warden Trevor Wingard told TribLive. “It’s fair. It’s the right thing to do.”
Jail administration has been working on this program for two years, Clark said, with the major holdup coming in the form of the job-tracking technology.
Software was developed that allows jail staff to simply scan a worker’s armband on a phone or tablet when they check in and out each day, Clark said.
There are additional incentives for those who receive their high school diploma, GED or other certificates, Clark said. Juveniles will be compensated for making honor roll or high honors, as well.
“We’ve really tried to expand this into other areas to reward them for their hard work and positive efforts,” Clark said.
There are some restrictions on who receives vocational assignments to ensure safety in the facility, Clark said. But anyone is able to earn the payments for education and re-entry programming.
Some jobs require only two or three hours per day, she continued, but others work eight or nine.
“Each of them are providing a crucial piece of the daily operations of the jail,” Clark said. “What they do is important.”
In the past, incarcerated workers would be rewarded in commissary and hygiene items.
“This is the first time there’s been any financial compensation,” Clark said.
Bethany Hallam, a long-time member of the Jail Oversight Board who once served time at the jail, praised the move.
“I’ve been trying to make this happen almost since day one on the JOB six years ago,” she said.
It’s important that the public realizes that every single piece of laundry at the jail, every meal that is prepared and served, is completed by incarcerated people, Hallam said.
“I’m excited they’re finally being recognized and appreciated for their work,” Hallam said. “They have been taken advantage of for way too long.”
But Hallam said there is more work to do: All podworkers are not yet included among those who will be compensated.
Wingard expects that to change in the next few months. He said they were excluded in the program’s first phase to ensure the technology to track the work is running well.
Hallam also believes the compensation ought to be higher.
“This is a great starting point to end a practice where the jail operates on unpaid slave labor,” she said.