You asked why the Department of Correction stopped operating prison farms, whether other states use prison farms, and whether prison farms reduce the cost of incarceration or improve discipline problems.

SUMMARY

According to the Department of Correction (DOC), DOC began phasing out prison farms in the 1970s. The reasons for doing so included complaints from families that inmates were not being taught skills, equipment costs, and complaints from farmers who lost business to prison farms.

In 1995, Ken Hampton, DOC legislative liaison at the time, and Marcella Wagner, DOC Director of Recreation Services for Facilities at the time, stated that some Connecticut facilities used to have extensive farms where inmates worked but these farms had been greatly reduced in size. Hampton cited complaints by private dairy farmers of unfair competition by inmates concerning dairy products that were sold to state institutions. Wagner cited the reluctance of most black inmates to volunteer to do farm labor. According to Wagner, many black inmates viewed farm work under these circumstances as too close to slavery to want to participate (OLR report 95-R-0218).

The U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics surveys correctional facilities operated by the states and the federal government. Their survey also included private facilities that predominantly held inmates under contract to a state or the federal government but excluded jails and local or regional detention facilities. Their most recent report surveyed facilities in 2000. This report found that:

1. about 29% of these correctional facilities operated farms or other agricultural activities;

2. 373 facilities had farming or agricultural work programs (6 federal, 346 state, and 21 private); and

3. of the 373 facilities, 346 were confinement facilities and 27 community-based (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Census of State and Federal Correctional Facilities, 2000, revised October 15, 2003).

Another publication, The Corrections Yearbook 2002, provides some information on specific states. This report found 28 states and the federal Bureau of Prisons had inmates working on farms on January 1, 2002. They found 34,180 inmates working on farms in these jurisdictions. As a percentage of the total prison population, those working on farms ranged from a low of .1% of the prison population in Delaware and Kansas to a high of 40.4% of the prison population in Arkansas.

We did not find any reports discussing the impact of prison farms on food costs or inmate discipline. One article states that Georgia and Florida have been successful in reducing inmate food costs by using inmate farms (Faggion, Do Prison Farms Offer a Money Saving Solution for Rising Prison Food Service Expenditures?, 2005). An Iowa report states that Missouri, Minnesota, and South Dakota had closed their farm operations because they continued to require cash infusions from the legislature. The Iowa report states that its program is self-funding and operates without General Fund support (Iowa Prison Industries 2001/2002 Annual Report).

INFORMATION ON SPECIFIC STATES

The Corrections Yearbook 2002, provides information on specific states. This report found 28 states and the federal Bureau of Prisons had inmates working on farms on January 1, 2002. The chart below displays the number of inmates working on farms and their percentage of the overall prison population in each jurisdiction.

* North Carolina did not distinguish inmates working on farms from its other prison industry jobs.

Source: The Corrections Yearbook 2002

We also found information on Georgia's Department of Corrections. Georgia has 448 inmates assigned in farm services. There are more than 5,000 inmates who work either on prison farms or in preserving, preparing, or serving foods. The department's Food and Farm Services oversees 14,196 acres and 47% of the food consumed by inmates is produced on its farms. This includes all of the milk, eggs, beef, and pork and all of the canned vegetables that can be grown there. The section also oversees a canning plant, slaughter plants, meat processing plants, milk processing plants, fresh vegetable processing facilities, and warehouse operations.

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