Prison work in law and reality: comparative perspectives from Brazil, the UK, and the US

Ben Jarman; Catherine Heard

doi:10.1177/20319525241263179

Abstract

International law provides that work by sentenced prisoners ought to prepare them for life after release. Yet reliable data on the nature, extent and impacts of prison work is lacking in much of the world, and what there is suggests that much prison work is far from voluntary, is unpaid or poorly paid, is unskilled or low-skilled, and does little to improve employment prospects on release. This article compares how prison work is defined and governed in law and shaped by policy, and how it is organised in practice. It describes the operationalisation of key legal provisions relating to prison work in three countries, and compares the purposes for prison work defined in law, the protections available to working prisoners, and the incentives or penalties used to secure participation. It also summarises the limited data available showing how many prisoners perform which kinds of work in each country. Finally, it argues that efforts to bring prison work provision into closer compliance with international standards should be sensitive to local variation, and suggests clarifying questions which could be used in such a reform process.

Availability

Accepted manuscript available via https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/53597.

Reuse

CC BY 4.0

Copyright

Citation

BibTeX citation:

@article{jarmanPrisonWorkLaw2024,
  author = {Jarman, Ben and Heard, Catherine},
  publisher = {SAGE Publications},
  title = {Prison Work in Law and Reality: Comparative Perspectives from
    {Brazil,} the {UK,} and the {US}},
  journal = {European Labour Law Journal},
  volume = {15},
  number = {3},
  pages = {541-562},
  date = {2024-09-01},
  url = {https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/53597},
  doi = {10.1177/20319525241263179},
  langid = {en},
  abstract = {International law provides that work by sentenced
    prisoners ought to prepare them for life after release. Yet reliable
    data on the nature, extent and impacts of prison work is lacking in
    much of the world, and what there is suggests that much prison work
    is far from voluntary, is unpaid or poorly paid, is unskilled or
    low-skilled, and does little to improve employment prospects on
    release. This article compares how prison work is defined and
    governed in law and shaped by policy, and how it is organised in
    practice. It describes the operationalisation of key legal
    provisions relating to prison work in three countries, and compares
    the purposes for prison work defined in law, the protections
    available to working prisoners, and the incentives or penalties used
    to secure participation. It also summarises the limited data
    available showing how many prisoners perform which kinds of work in
    each country. Finally, it argues that efforts to bring prison work
    provision into closer compliance with international standards should
    be sensitive to local variation, and suggests clarifying questions
    which could be used in such a reform process.}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Jarman, B., & Heard, C. (2024). Prison work in law and reality: comparative perspectives from Brazil, the UK, and the US. European Labour Law Journal, 15(3), 541–562.