skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

After Protest, Reporter Learns All Prison Labor Isn't Equal

play audio
Play

Monday, April 16, 2018   

EUGENE, Ore. — After an uproar on campus over prison labor used to make the University of Oregon's furniture, one student reporter decided to see the prison for herself.

Frankie Benitez writes for the Daily Emerald and was inspired to check out the the Oregon Corrections Enterprises furniture factory at the State Penitentiary in Salem when the Student Labor Action Project began protesting the company. Benitez said she sympathizes with the protestors, but in the factory, she found most of the people doing the work enjoyed it.

"Not only was it the best paying, but when they worked with OCE, they felt like they were free like on the outside, because they were treated like valued people who had the best knowledge for any situation,” Benitez said. “Like,the guards would ask them what they thought was a good way to proceed with a project."

Benitez said jobs with OCE - a semi-independent agency that funds itself - are some of the most coveted in the penitentiary. Average salaries in the factory are nearly $160 a month, and the workers have the opportunity to make more.

Benitez added that this isn't indicative of work in the rest of the prison. If someone doesn't choose a job, they are usually assigned to menial tasks where they can make as little as $8 a month.

People in Oregon prisons are required to work 40 hours a week because of Measure 17, passed in 1994. But Benitez said questions about forced labor and work with OCE are practically separate issues.

"This program is something that everyone who works for it wants to be working for it,” she said. “You know, they went through a rigorous application process, and they have to really want to work there to work there, and they can stop working there at any time. But that's completely different from jobs that they would be forced to work for."

While most of the people in prison said they were happy to work with OCE, Benitez knows this isn't the full story. As a follow-up, she's hoping to hear from people who have worked for OCE in the past.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Iowa families can apply for up to $7,600 a year for private school costs. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

An ethics committee in the Republican-led Iowa House has dismissed a complaint filed by a group of community activists against a state lawmaker for hi…


play sound

Each spring, hundreds of thousands of California high school seniors have to figure out if they can afford to go to college in the fall - and two new …

Health and Wellness

play sound

A health care workforce shortage in New Hampshire is leaving Alzheimer's patients and their families with few options for treatment. Patients facing …


South Dakota ranks 49th in the country for its contribution to indigent legal defense costs, according to a 2023 report from the Indigent Legal Services Task Force. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

South Dakota is creating an Office of Indigent Legal Services after House Bill 1057 passed the Legislature with nearly unanimous support this month…

Environment

play sound

A Knoxville-based environmental group is voicing concerns over what it sees as an increasing financial strain imposed on taxpayers by nuclear weapons …

Environment

play sound

A bipartisan law set to take effect this summer prohibits foreign adversaries from buying Hoosier farmland. The signature of Gov. Eric Holcomb was …

Social Issues

play sound

Today, people across Arizona are voting in the Presidential Preference Election, a chance for registered Democrats and Republicans to choose their …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021