Alabama Prisoners do Productive Work to Supplement State Budgets

Alabama Correctional Industries (ACI) "utilizes inmate labor to produce goods and services that are sold to governmental entities within the State," the ACI website states. "The revenues generated go to offset the costs of incarceration and provide inmates with job skills and practical work experience."

Participating prisoners are paid 25 to 75 cents per hour for their work.

Alabama law states that products made by state prisoners can only be sold to "entities whose operational budgets are funded all or in part by tax revenues (e.g. state, county, and city governmental and educational organizations)," according to the ACI website.