‘HARD TO STOMACH’

Illinois Inmates Made to Wash Cars and Shine Shoes at Prison Worker Events: Watchdog

“It’s really hard for me to just honestly stomach the idea that... employees benefit from offender labor,” one corrections employee told the gov’t watchdog.

An investigation by the Illinois inspector general’s office into the state’s Department of Corrections employee benefit funds (EBF) revealed that prisoners were improperly put to work at fundraisers led by employees. During such EBF fundraisers, the watchdog found, prison inmates were forced to wash and shine cars, give haircuts, and sell wood and plants—all to raise cash for initiatives benefitting corrections employees. The IG’s findings became public on Friday, four-and-a-half years after it first began the probe under Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. The IG report included one IDOC employee’s views on the use of prison labor for EBF events: “He felt that using inmate labor to raise funds for the EBFs is ‘bad optics,’ ‘bad ethically,’ and ‘bad morally,’” the IG reported. “He added: ‘It’s really hard for me to just honestly stomach the idea that... employees benefit from offender labor.’”