Inmates Build Affordable Housing

Unlike corrections-run home building programs in other states, in which inmates build modular homes inside prison walls, crews of minimum-security inmates are trained and work at construction sites.

The corrections department contracts with nonprofit housing developers in a handful of communities around the state. A corrections department carpenter supervises the inmates, who earn up to $1.50 an hour while they are taught to frame, build walls, and shingle roofs.

Rather than taking away work from local contractors, the program creates jobs for local electricians, excavators, and other specialists, said a corrections department official. One hundred seventy-five inmates have completed the training. The vast majority of those who have been discharged from prison are now working in construction, prison officials say.