THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 15, 1995 TAG: 9503150002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
If Virginia prisoners who volunteer to work are paid $4.25 an hour, as planned, prisons could turn out well-to-do or even wealthy taxpaying individuals - people with something to lose. They might be less likely to commit crimes than someone broke. In fact, they might be afraid of crime.
It's true, prisoners would keep little under the ``factories behind fences'' program that could begin as early as January. From each hour's wage, about 85 cents would go for taxes, 85 cents for prison costs and 85 cents to compensate crime victims - leaving the worker $1.70 an hour to pocket.
But one thing prisoners have is time, and time is to money - even small amounts of money - what fertilizer is to lawns.
A prisoner pocketing $1.70 an hour and working 40 hours a week would accumulate $68 a week. Frank D. Tehel, a certified financial planner with Professional Financial Planning in Virginia Beach, calculated the amazing amounts of money a prisoner might accumulate by investing monthly in a mutual fund with tax deferral.
Assuming the investment grew 12 percent a year, an average mutual-fund rate, a prisoner who invested $87 a month (or $20 a week) would have $20,013 saved after 10 years, $86,065 after 20 years, $304,061 after 30 years and $1,023,530 after 40 years. That's right: a million bucks.
If the prisoner invested $40 a week, his totals would be twice as big - ending with a little over $600,000 after 30 years and $2 million after 40.
So who is more dangerous: the person released with $25 in his pocket or the person with real money to lose? It is galling to think a murderer might grow rich, but wealth is a form of rehabilitation.
Everything about the ``factories behind fences'' program makes sense.
Working prisoners will help pay for their own keep and help reimburse their victims. They should do both. And as Secretary of Public Safety Jerry W. Kilgore noted last week, inmates will receive hands-on training for real jobs on the outside.
Staff writer Lynn Waltz wrote last week that officials are working with manufacturing and labor representatives to ensure that the program does not compete with existing businesses in the state.
The United States has complained vehemently against other nations that have sold prisoners' products cheaply. But the jobs in Virginia will be volunteer and pay the minimum wage.
The program will start small, with about 500 inmates expected to volunteer. ``We want every prison in the future to have the capability of beginning a private industry,'' Kilgore said.
A prisoner whose money was earning money outside the prison walls surely would be less likely to make trouble behind bars.
The new program will fulfill Gov. George F. Allen's 1993 campaign promise to put prisoners to work. And the longer sentences will afford prisoners' money more time to grow. by CNB