Unlike incarcerated residents with jobs in the kitchen or woodshop who earn just a few hundred dollars a month, remote workers make fair-market wages, allowing them to pay victim restitution fees and legal costs, provide child support, and contribute to Social Security and other retirement funds.
Some crime victims would rather have their perpetrators 'rot in hell' than see them have these kinds of privileges, said Randall Liberty, commissioner of the Maine Department of Corrections, and victims are notified, and their concerns considered, when offenders line up remote jobs.
Tensions can arise inside prison walls, too, given the vast income disparities with residents working in the kitchen or woodshop who make far less. But there hasn't been much grumbling, especially since those who land outside employment often give up more desirable prison jobs that then become available to others.
The DOC is in the process of formalizing its remote work policy, which will open up opportunities to more residents. The benefits are undeniable.
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