Imprisonment and Work

In this paper, I analyze the significance of prison labor —if it has any—based on the principle that imprisonment itself should be the punishment and that additional harm from and extensions of the prison sentence are illegitimate. Scholars have predominantly approached prison labor from an instrumentalist perspective in which programs for work in prison are studied with an eye on reducing recidivism and increasing public safety. I seek to develop a different analysis, one that sees prison labor not as a remedy against recidivism. Instead, I address the significance of prison labor as part of the principle that prisoners ought to retain their basic rights, except for a temporary loss of liberty. On this normative account, it is not merely that the difficulties that ex-offenders experience on the labor market have a harmful effect on public safety, but that they are inconsistent with the principle that imprisonment itself should be the punishment. The difficulties that ex-offenders experience on the labor market constitute illegitimate extensions of the prison sentence in terms of the concept of ‘exprisonment.’ Against this background, I argue that work in prison ought to be organized in such a way that it contributes to offenders’ (re)integration into the labor market.