From jail cell to CDL

“My name is Derek Petteway. I have been out of MRCC custody since November 28th, 2023. While at MRCC I was able to obtain my CDL, and since have found a very fulfilling career path because of it. I started a job as a crane rigger about two months ago. This job has treated me very well and it will provide me with outstanding benefits and a great retirement plan. The end goal for me is to eventually become a certified crane operator one day.

“None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for the opportunity that the NDDOCR gave me to get my CDL, as you need a CDL to drive the cranes and haul the counterweights for the cranes at this job.

“Since being released, I have been active in recovery groups, been reunited with my family, and been able to pursue my goals in a healthy and productive manner. Life has not been easy so far, but it has been good, and without my sobriety I have nothing. One thing that is certain, is that both Rough Rider Industries RRI and the NDDOCR invested a large amount of time, money, and effort into my success, and I would not be where I am today without the help I was given. Thank you all for everything you’ve done for me. I won’t let you down.”

This story, posted by the ND Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (NDDOCR), came across my Facebook newsfeed the other day, and I couldn’t help but share.

These are the kinds of stories we like to hear about when it comes to our penal institutions. After all, we are more likely to hear the stories about how individuals ended up in jail than we are to hear about their recovery or reentry into society.

I think of the TV show “Hell on Wheels.” It’s been a few years since we watched it, but the images are still vivid in my mind. A “camp” made of Chinese immigrants and incarcerated individuals, prostitutes and preachers, toiling in squalor to build the transcontinental railroad.

We all know the 13th Amendment abolished slavery. However, it also effectively legalized prison labor in the United States, setting up a modern-day system that has continued to exploit hundreds of thousands of individuals.

Here’s what the 13th Amendment actually says: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

The emphasis on that quote is mine. That one phrase, sandwiched in the middle of an otherwise clear-cut law of the land ending slavery, opened up a world of possibilities for the powerful to coerce people to work against their will.

A simple search for “history of prison labor” brings up a trove of stories on the injustices suffered by incarcerated individuals over the past 150-plus years.

I came across one article in a local newspaper in North Carolina called “Citizen Times.” In a local history piece, reporter Rob Neufeld outlined the post-Civil War conditions for prisoners in that state. He noted the construction of the 1,832-foot long Swannanoa Tunnel, the last of the transcontinental railroad’s tunnels.

“North Carolina put its prisoners on chain gangs under heavy guard to avoid the expense of arduous state projects, such as the building of railroads and blasting of paths. After being fed supper, journalist Rebecca Harding Davis reported, the convicts, ‘were driven into a row of prison cars, where they were tightly boxed in for the night, with no possible chance to obtain either light or air.’

“James W. Wilson, contractor for the excavation of the Swannanoa Tunnel, told the General Assembly that the actual cost of the work (not counting the value of labor) was thirty cents a day – seven cents for the feeding of the prisoners, ten cents for the guarding, and the rest for miscellaneous care.”

U.S. history is filled with these stories, and it’s important to talk about the poor conditions and modern-day slavery that has and continues to occur in our prisons. We need to draw out abuse and coercion where it happens.

It’s also critical that we understand the actual costs of incarceration in our communities.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, as published in the Federal Register, the average annual cost of incarceration fee (COIF) for a Federal inmate housed in a Bureau or non-Bureau facility in FY 2022 was $42,672 ($116.91 per day). The average annual COIF for a Federal inmate housed in a Residential Reentry Center for FY 2022 was $39,197 ($107.39 per day).

The common arguments come up when we think about incarcerated individuals. “They need to repay their debt to society, they shouldn’t earn an income,” or “commit the crime, do the time.”

Yes, incarcerated individuals should work if they are able. It shouldn’t be considered out of line for them to help maintain the facility where they live. The work should also help them build marketable skills and put them in environments that mimic “the outside” as much as possible.

And if they are providing full-time labor to the facility that incarcerates them, surely we can cover the costs of their phone calls home, hygiene products and basic vocational training, especially if it reduces that individual’s chance of recidivism. Consider it their “take-home pay,” given that the average wage in America in 2023 was $59,000, nearly $20,000 less than the published “cost of incarceration.”

Mr. Petteway’s experience is a step in the right direction. We are in a critical workforce shortage situation in North Dakota. Every individual we can take out of jail and put to work is a win for not only that person and their family, but also for society.

I hope we hear from Mr. Petteway again in a few years, and that NDDOCR continues to highlight success stories like this. If rehabilitation and reentry programs are going to gain the traction they need and the funding they require to continue, we need to put a magnifying glass on the results.

Since the vast majority of us must work for a living, let’s make that work meaningful, not menial.