Legislative Service Requests (LSRs) are turning into bills now, with numbers, titles, and text. They’re coming in fast now, with hundreds already assigned numbers and committees for legislative work in January. One such bill would enable a new minimum wage for prisoners, at a cost of over $9 million annually to the taxpayer.
‘Prison pay’ is generally low, between 25c and $1.50 an hour in New Hampshire as of 2017. This bill, HB1555, would require prisoners to be paid at least one-half the federal or state minimum wage. New Hampshire currently does not have a minimum wage, instead defaulting to the federal minimum of $7.25/hour.
The new income would have to be used towards the education of the inmate, either in a vocational or post-secondary setting.
The bill’s sponsors are Rep. Thompson, Ches. 14; Rep. Wilhelm, Hills. 42; and Rep. Oxenham, Sull. 1.
New Hampshire ended it’s practice of billing prisoners for their room & board this year, finally. But now these three Democrats want to see a minimum wage for inmates to pay for their education? Inmates receive “free” room, board, healthcare, and more – sometimes sex changes and the like. Paying them 25c to $1.50 an hour on top of all their “free” stuff seems like it’s enough.
Perhaps we could stop incarcerating folks for ‘crimes’ that don’t have victims, like marijuana possession. Then, those ‘inmates’ could be out in the world contributing to society instead of populating incarceration centers where the taxpayer is forced to pay for their every need. That would do a lot more good than increasing the wage they earn for working while they live for free.