There are 2,200 incarcerated people across Washington who have jobs.
They’re employed in prison facilities. They might be welders, food service workers, carpenters, or janitors.
You may have bought something created by an incarcerated person, like your license plate.
Altogether, Washington’s Department of Corrections generated $68.8 million in revenue last year.
But only a small portion of that money makes it into the incarcerated workers’ wages. At most, inmates can make $2.70 an hour.
A new proposal by State Rep. Tarra Simmons (D-Bremerton) would raise that minimum wage to match Washington’s at $15.74 an hour.
Simmons also happens to be the first ever formerly incarcerated person to be elected to the State Legislature.
Simmons told KUOW host Kim Malcolm she remembers working a number of jobs in prison, and never making more than 42 cents an hour.
"If you refuse to work, you are threatened with a major infraction, which means you can go to solitary confinement, lose visitation with your children, or even lose good time," she said.
That’s hard when there are also necessities you have to pay for while in prison, like tampons, toothpaste, and cotton swabs.
"You also have to pay for medical care," Simmons said. "You have to pay a copay for that. And we even charge people for cost of incarceration."
Simmons' proposal is built on the argument that current wages are an exploitative but legal loophole which needs closing.
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