Rishe Deitsch,
PLEASE, do send me the N’Shei Chabad News letter. I appreciated you including me on the mailing list. The fact that you are providing the subscription to me for free allows me access.
I only make 16¢ an hour and I also must purchase food and hygene products. Women at this prison like most others are usually indigent, by virtue of prolonged incarceration. Although women and men in N.Y.S. prisons are mandated to work 30 hrs a week minimum, they are paid 16¢ for most positions, except for industry, which makes .90 – 1.10¢ per hour, but there are only 2 such jobs in Bedford Hills. There are 850 women at Bedford Hilss and there are two positions at 90¢ per hour at the prison’s D.M.V. call center and that is only for Team Leaders.
We have grievedthe issue, that our inmate wages have not increased since 1973, yet due to inflation rates outside/inside of the prison our wages are decreasing in value steadily. At commissary, where we purchase our food, hygene and basic products, the buy limit for food was $55, now this year is gone up to $75.
The catch is because we are prisoners, we have no vote, no leverage with legislature/representation. In N.Y.S. inmate wages are set and regulated, not the Correctional Department. After Attica Riots 1971 the state set at 10% of standard min wages, inmate wages for their mandatory work/programs. Since then the standard minimum wages have increased exponentially due to inflation rates nationwide, however prison wages have remained the same since they were set. If it were adjusted to 10% of today’s wages we would get 90¢ an hour, much better than 16¢ for us.
One scholar at the Marymount-Manhattan College at Bedford Hill prison, another female prisoner actually wrote a paper in economics describing the problems incurred by the imprisoned population, especially female prisoners. Because inmate wages are decreasing in value and encumbrances that inmates are required to pay are increasing, inmates face an unduly harsh challenge to attempt rehabilitation in the midst of such deprivations. Her name is [Name omitted for privacy] and her paper was so well read and accurate. People need to see and understand what it’s like for us here. Perhaps if the public knew the plight of the incarcerated woman behind prison walls people would be compelled to advocate for us, as they do for animals. Although Hashem gave the human being speech to differentiate us from the animals, in prison we have no voice. The current prison system imposes upon women in America (N.Y.), upon human bodies and souls, real changes would preserve human rights. All lives matter, except the lives of the incarcerated woman in America’s mass incarceration era.
Respectfully,
[Name omitted for privacy]
Please write me back if you would like a copy of her work.