Sioux Empire Fair Not Eager to Pay Inmates Minimum Wage; Volunteers?

The Sioux Empire Fair is disinclined to pay a fair wage for inmate labor:

The general manager of the Sioux Empire Fair says they have used cheap labor from prison inmates for years but that is changing.

”Now the program is that they are work release, so what that means is the work release folks that we get are out employees, they are on our payroll, so when you go from the community release work program at a dollar twenty-five an hour to at least the minimum wage, that greatly changes the budget and how we can operate,” said Fair CEO Scott Wick.

…Wick says the cost of using eight inmates for the fair would jump from around $12,000 a year to $150,000 [Tom Hanson, “Non-Profits Scrambling After Inmate Community Service Program Appears to Be Dropped,” KELO-TV, 2023.07.24].

The Department of Corrections has adopted the general Noem Administration modus operandi of ignoring reporters’ requests for comment on basic policy, so we can’t know why the state is changing the rules for the Fair and other non-profits to exploit inmate labor. KELO-TV suggests it’s due to concerns about lawsuits filed by inmates in other states charging their captors with slave labor, but such lawsuits have failed in Nevada and Maryland. The 13th Amendment excludes prisoners from the prohibition of slavery, so prisons can require prisoners to work for pennies or for free. The State of South Dakota barely recognizes the labor rights of free citizens, so I can’t imagine the Department of Corrections has suddenly come to Jim Casy-Jesus on the labor rights of prisoners.

But hey, Sioux Empire Fair and other cash-strapped non-profits, call the DOC and see if they’ll work out a middle ground. Maybe you can still request volunteers from then prison system. I mean, if I were in prison, I’d be eager for ay chance to get out of my cell and off campus. I’d leap at the chance to walk around in the sunshine picking up garbage whether I was getting a paycheck or not. Getting some exercise outside, listening to the free fiddle concerts, scoring some community service points with the parole board, and maybe sneaking a glance at the cowgirls would be all the compensation I’d need. I can’t be the only prisoner who’d think like that.

Sure, a guard at the cell door patting his palm with his big stick and asking for “volunteers” may still be fraught with coercion. And perhaps we should oppose slavery in any form, even among criminals. But with or without the 13th Amendment, prisoners may still volunteer for work, and the Department of Corrections should put suitable and safe volunteers to work helping community organizations like the Sioux Empire Fair.