Since April 2021, the carceral apparatus of Madison Correctional Facility for women has mandated approximately ninety women at any given time to work at the private owned business, Royer. Royer, a local factory in the Jeffersonville area, contracts with the facility and Warden Jan Davis for incarcerated laborers to staff its two locations, one sitting inside prison gates. Both Royer factories are privately owned by Rodger Williams and his son, Kenton Williams. “Royer-south,” the outside factory located in downtown Madison, employs Warden Davis’ work-release participants as well as competitive-wage non-incarcerated people from the area. [1] “Royer-north,” the inside factory located on prison grounds, only uses incarcerated laborers except for an on-shift supervisor. No incarcerated person may refuse the mandated employment unless willing to refuse work-release eligibility, suffer misconduct resulting in more prison time, or become targets of retaliation.
Royer-north uses the incarcerated workforce on one of two available shifts. The women workers are paid $1.00 an hour with no raises, no training, and no opportunity for specializations or promotions. Each woman laborer is responsible for making daily production quotas either at a printing machine or in the packaging area. Royer specializes in making small plastics such as cupcake rings, cake toppers, and cup stirrers. Customers of the company include Southwest Airlines, Deco, the National Football League, and Disney. Royer-north produces 800,000 to 1,000,000 consumer products daily for sale.
State law provides the IDOC Commissioner leeway to enter into agreements with private companies for the “manufacturing of goods or any other business” on prison grounds. (See IC 11-10-7-2). Stipulations for the private business involves the leasing of prison land, buildings or machinery used in the operations conducted on prison property. These aspects of the contractual laws are clear and enforceable. The unenforceable aspects of the laws, those written for the incarcerated workers used in the joint-venture contracts, permits IDOC, individual Wardens, and private business to exploit workers, embezzle their wages, and disregard workplace safety.
While the laws discuss the leasing of IDOC property, incarcerated people are not referenced as such property nor their labor leasable. The laws covering the agreements between IDOC and private business persons specifically state, “an offender employed under this chapter will be paid at least the prevailing wage for that type of work…including applicable wage increases for overtime work.” (IC 11-10-7-3(a)). Under these joint-business arrangements “for the employment” of the incarcerate, all state and federal taxes including social security deductions will be deducted; 40% of earnings will be deducted for room and board; 10% of earnings to the state victim compensation fund; child support, court costs, and fees will be paid; and 15-20% placed in an untouchable reintegration fund for the person’s release. (See IC 11-10-7-5). [2] Incarcerated wages benefit the worker’s, debts dependents, and reintegration needs.
The unenforceable parts of the law concerning use of incarcerated labor by private companies are the exemptions preventing incarcerated people in Indiana from demanding the law’s protections. In the case of Royer’s use of cheap labor, exploitations and corruption is the most evident by Warden Jan Davis’s personal interest in the operations. Consider, Warden Davis has personally informed the IDOC healthcare service provider to refuse sick days for incarcerated employees. She has contacted the housing unit of Royer workers demanding the attendance of people having undergone medical procedures. Royer-north workers are refused job transfers for educational, vocational, or other employment opportunities. The job offers no certifications, specialization, nor advancement. The women work 8 hour shifts but are only paid for 7.5 hours. Warden Davis personally retaliates against anyone wanting to leave Royer employment regardless of the reason, anyone who files grievances, or tries to demand policy adherence. She even refuses to feed the workers “crew sacks” intended for physical laborers, instead feeding them four pieces of bread, a slice of meat, an ounce of peanut butter, and a cookie.
Corruption is further evident in the denial of Royer-north’s laborer’s wages. Instead of paying Royer-north workers comparable wages or minimum wages, Warden Davis set their pay scale at $1.00 per hour. Royer pays Warden Davis for the incarcerated labor of Royer-north at minimum wage to $9.00 per hour for each worker. The money not paid to incarcerated workers is being stolen, yet no remedy exists in law for these exploited women. Overtime work profits Warden Davis’ interest even further with Royer paying time and a half, yet workers earning only $1.50 per hour. The work-release contract with Royer-south profits Warden Davis 40% of their earnings and easy round trip gas mileage since all workers are employed at Royer. Royer’s owner is not invested in guaranteeing Royer-north’s wages, in part because of the uninterrupted labor force which keeps profits high.
It is unknown at this time the extent of corruption and thievery by Indiana’s carceral system in exploiting incarcerated person’s labor. All people employed inside Indiana’s prisons at joint business ventures are being denied compensation for labor as detailed in federal and state laws. Their wages are pocketed by IDOC and its officials without regard for either taxpaying citizens who fund the carceral apparatus or incarcerated people set for release. Profits from these confiscated wages by the patriarchal overseer are in excess of millions of dollars. (See IC 11-10-6-6). The incarcerated people providing labor to free-market businesses have been prosecuted by the law, but are not permitted access to its protections. The private businesses contracting with IDOC in these joint partnerships know of the wage confiscation by IDOC and permit it, complicit in the exploitation profiting excessively from a cheap and steady workforce.
In N.F.L. Sunday during the A.F.C. Championship, incarcerated women at Royer-north were made to report to work. The women were to meet quotas of 20,000 cupcake rings each with the N.F.L. team winner’s image printed on them. The women remained at work until 2:00 am Monday morning. A total of 400,000 Cincinnati Bengals cupcake rings were ready for distribution the day after the big game. Royer’s profits undoubtedly added to the N.F.L.’s profits distributing the official logo to its customers. IDOC’s profits increased from the overtime wage rate received for the workers. The incarcerated women lost human capital by extending labor without compensation; without regard for their future needs; without regard for their dependents or debts; without regard for retirement plans or private healthcare provisions; an without regard for taxes or social security benefits. Workplace injuries equate to disposable bodies incarcerated inside IDOC with no compensation for workplace injuries or for lack of future earnings and health.
A pre-cursor to mass incarceration for women includes lack of fair compensation for work performed. Women are rarely compensated for domestic work performed in child-rearing and household management. Often, gender-based wage-earning differences and intersectional discrimination upon women results in lower incomes. Women who enter prison have a higher rate of being uneducated, not possessing employable skills, and lack of certifications. Continuing the same cycle towards incarcerated people as common to marketplace conditions previou
sly experienced and leading to incarcerations initially, reinforces historical tropes upon certain bodies. Domestic violence and abuse upon the female body is the same rather a partner, a pimp, or IDOC. Private business partnerships which use the cheap forced labor of incarcerated people further exploits those inside for private benefit.
[1] Jeffersonville County Work Release is one of two primary work-release centers available to women in IDOC. JCWR is located inside Madison Correctional sharing the same warden, same physicality, and similar privileges as non-work-release population. JCWR participants pay 40% of their wages for room and board yet are denied privileges given at male work-release centers. The women are denied cellphone access, weekend or day passes, and job searching. No accommodations are given to all three shift’s workers.
[2] IDOC’s own internal policy #02-01-106 states in relevant parts: A “joint private business partnership” is “a business arrangement approve by the Commissioner that provides employment for adult offenders with a private business on grounds of a correctional facility, in which the offender is paid a wage comparable for the job, as in the community.” Also, “[I]n no circumstances shall an offender be paid less than the minimum wage indicated by federal and state guidelines.”
