Probationers fill poultry plant gap left by immigrant worker

[butterbean]

Probationers fill poultry plant gap left by immigrant workers

Sunday, October 14, 2007
The Associated Press - STILLMORE, Ga.

When a federal raid last year depleted most of the Crider poultry plant's workers, officials quickly sought out replacement employees, finding a steady supply of workers through the Georgia Department of Corrections.

Under an informal, two-page agreement between the plant and the state agency, probationers from the Macon Diversion Center work at the plant packing boxes and processing chickens to pay off probation violation fines and to pay room-and-board charges at the diversion center, which is part-jail, part-halfway house.

Crider officials won't speak about the arrangement, but state officials say the probationers choose to work at Crider because it offers a competitive wage helping them pay fines and rejoin socieity. The jobs pay $6 to $10 an hour, plus a potential $2-an-hour attendance bonus and overtime for more than 40 hours of work a week, according to the department.

But a human rights group says some of the probationers end up becoming temporary indentured servants unable to work off their debt to society in a reasonable amount of time. Room and board at the center costs $600 a month. Probationers also must pay transportation costs for the 90-minute ride to Crider, medical bills and other expenses.

Sara Geraghty, an attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights, says the room-and board costs are too high and the probationers end up stuck at the center because they can't make enough to pay off the fines.

But state officials say the average stay of probationers at the state's detention centers is up to six months.

The state began in 1972 the diversion centers, which intitially were called restitution centers. Judges ordered violators into the centers, where they would stay until they worked off their fines and restitution.

Probationers only work for certain employers, although center officials say they let probationers select jobs from an approved list. They must have a job and the checks go directly to the corrections department. Inmates receive a small allowance, mostly to pay work transportation expenses.

Since the mid-1990s, Stillmore had grown dependent on the paychecks of Mexican workers who originally came for seasonal farm labor. Many later took year-round jobs at the Crider plant, which had a workforce of about 900.

In May 2006, federal agents began inspecting the company's employment records, finding 700 suspected illegal immigrants. Supervisors that summer gave out letters ordering the workers to prove they came to the U.S. legally or be fired. Only about 100 kept their jobs. Arrests began at the plant in September 2006 and the plant limped along with half its normal workforce.

Repeated complaints from the Southern Center has prompted the corrections department to change its policy on how probationers' earnings are held. Instead of covering room-and-board charges first before paying off the fines, the fines now take precedent, said spokesman Paul Czachowski.

Superintendents also have been authorized to adjust room and board costs to help meet the four-to-six month target, said Micahel Nail, deputy division director for the department.

Taxpayers will have to make up the difference, Nail said. The center operates on state dollars with an annual budget of $1.5 million. It took in about $511,500 in room-and-board charges last fiscal year.

But officials say the program is cheaper than jailing those who won't meet the conditions of their porbation.

"Ultimately our goal is to send them out the door better off," Nail said.

http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/ap_ne ... p?ID=98972

[BetsyRoss]

If they are in a halfway house situation, trying to adjust to society, would you want that process to go real fast? I'm guessing not.

[Ex_OC]

Oh gee, SPLC, make it cushier for lawbreakers. God forbid they have to pay for their crimes!

I think my next job is gonna be "a criminal." I think I will get more rights that way. Sheesh. CRIME PAYS, doesn't it with groups like the SPLC.

[domack]

The jobs pay $6 to $10 an hour, plus a potential $2-an-hour attendance bonus and overtime for more than 40 hours of work a week, according to the department.

So if they can't have black market illegal aliens, so they hire indentured slaves from prison. Why is it those jobs can't pay a wage that Americans will work for? I like work programs for cons but not for US company's trying to avoid the social responsibility for their workers.

[redpony353]

THEY SHOULD PAY THEM MORE. I DONT THINK TEN BUCKS AN HOUR IS TOO MUCH TO PAY. AFTER TAX IT WOULD BE ABOUT $1100 A MONTH. SO $500 COULD GO TO FINES AFTER PAYING THE DIVERSION CENTER FOR ROOM AND BOARD.

I CAN SEE THIS TURNING INTO SLAVE LABOR WITHOUT PROPER OVERSIGHT. MAYBE INSTEAD OF FINES IN MONEY THE JUDGES COULD GIVE THEM FINES IN TIME. LIKE FOR INSTANCE, SIX MONTHS DIVERSION WORK PROGRAM. THE HOURS PER WEEK WOULD BE PRE DECIDED ACCORDING TO THE AGE AND HEALTH OF THE OFFENDER.

SO FOR SIX MONTHS THEY WOULD WORK AND PART OF THE MONEY THEY ARE PAID WOULD GO TO THE DIVERSION CENTER AND PART WOULD GO TO RESTITUTION.

THEN AFTER THAT IF WANT TO KEEP WORKING THERE THEY COULD TILL THEY GET ON THEIR FEET. FROM THEN ON OUT THE DIVERSION CENTER WOULD GET MONEY FOR THEIR KEEP AND THE REST WOULD BE SAVED FOR THE OFFENDER TILL THEY GET A REAL WORLD JOB AND APARTMENT......TO GET THEM STARTED.

[butterbean]

THEY SHOULD PAY THEM MORE. I DONT THINK TEN BUCKS AN HOUR IS TOO MUCH TO PAY. AFTER TAX IT WOULD BE ABOUT $1100 A MONTH. SO $500 COULD GO TO FINES AFTER PAYING THE DIVERSION CENTER FOR ROOM AND BOARD.

I agree. $10 an hour is NOT very much at all, even to a prisoner trying to rehabilitate him/herself slowly back into society. It would be a great incintive to learn a trade and become productive members of the community. Farmers need to GET REAL, and pay DECENT WAGES. I don't think Americans would mind paying a few cents more for a head of lettuce, in exchange for farmers NOT to hire ILLEGAL ALIENS.

[BetsyRoss]

They could start them low, then give them incentive raises to provide more discretionary income as they learn to cooperate and behave. $10-12 would not be too much for someone who is on an upward trajectory for a change.