Vol. 71/No. 14      April 9, 2007

Colorado's Inmate Farmer Labor Program will allow agribusiness and other capitalist farmers to contract prison labor. The inmates will get paid the state's standard prison wage of about 60 cents per day.

The labor shortage, state officials say, was created after the passage last summer of state legislation that increased sanctions on employers hiring undocumented immigrants, imposed more stringent documentation requirements, reduced access to services for immigrants, and called for more aggressive police enforcement of the regulations.

“This created a climate of fear and confusion among immigrants,” Julien Ross of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition told the Militant, prompting "thousands" to leave the state.

“Up until last summer, some 100 to 300 migrant laborers would work here,” Frank Sobolik said in an interview. He is the head of the cooperative extension office at Colorado State University, which grows vegetables on 3,000 acres. “After the summer, you couldn’t find 50.”

Under the Inmate Farmer Labor Program, agribusinesses and other farms would contract with Colorado Correctional Industries at an hourly cost of $9.65 per worker. That would cover wages, transportation, and security.

Inmates, however, will get 63 cents per day, Alison Morgan, a spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Corrections, told the Militant. “And they’re eligible for production bonuses of $40 or $50 per month,” she added.

Morgan said the first inmate work crew is due out in mid-May.

The state of Iowa is now considering a similar program, according to the New York Times.  
 
 
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