For the small savings he built while working as an Illinois Department of Corrections inmate, Kensley Hawkins nearly lost it all.
In 2011, the department sued Hawkins for the $11,000 he made while working at a furniture-assembly job at a Joliet prison. The money would have gone to cover a portion of his incarceration costs if not for the Illinois Supreme Court ruling in his favor allowing him to keep what he had earned.
After 40 years spent in prison, his sentence for convicted murder was commuted in April 2021 by the Illinois Prison Review Board. In the 27 years he worked making chairs, tables, and desks for state entities, Hawkins estimates he earned about $20,000 -- working up to $1.50 per day in his final years behind bars.
While since increased, Hawkins' pay was the norm for skilled inmate workers in Illinois where advocates say wages and work conditions are insufficient.
"Working in industry, I think they should be paid at least minimum wage because it is a skilled job," Hawkins said in an interview with The State Journal-Register. "I feel like it would only be fair if we would be paid something reasonable."
Nationwide, pay for prison workers averages between 13 cents and 52 cents per hour according to a 2022 report from the American Civil Liberties Union. Some states do not pay.
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