We know by now that many states have taken steps on their own to “crack down” on illegal immigrants by giving local and state police more power in imprisoning them and restricting social services and other rights to them. These efforts are apparently working as farmers in many states fear that the migrant farm workers they’ve come to depend on for years are now leaving for other states. So who will do the farm work? As the New York Times reports, new programs now allow prison inmates to fill in:

Under the program, which has drawn criticism from groups concerned about immigrants’ rights and from others seeking changes in the criminal justice system, farmers will pay a fee to the state, and the inmates, who volunteer for the work, will be paid about 60 cents a day, corrections officials said. . . . Last year, the Colorado General Assembly passed tough legislation that included giving local law enforcement broader powers to check immigration status and restricting access to social services for workers without proper documentation.

Immigrant rights group, however, said the Colorado program was myopic. “Many immigrants are leaving Colorado for other states that will actually embrace their contributions as good citizens and hard workers,” said Julien Ross, state coordinator for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. . . . A group calling for changes in sentencing, the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, is also uneasy about the program. The group views the inmates’ pay as problematic.

“This feels like the re-invention of the plantation,” said Christie Donner, the group’s executive director. “You have a captive labor force essentially working for their room and board in order to benefit the employer. This isn’t a job training program. It’s an exploitative program.” . . . “They won’t be paid big bucks, but we’re hoping this will help our inmates pick up significant and valuable job skills,” [said the Director of CO’s Corrections Dept.].

I have a few reactions here. One is from the farmer’s point of view, as long as the wok gets done, they probably don’t really care who does it. Second is if inmate participation is voluntary, once they actually start doing that kind of back breaking work, a lot of them will probably quit and not come back, especially since it’s only for 60 cents a day. Perhaps they’ll have a new appreciation for what the migrant workers do day in and day out.

I also laughed when I read the statement from the Corrections official that “They won’t be paid big bucks, but we’re hoping this will help our inmates pick up significant and valuable job skills.” Really? What significant and valuable job skills are those? Are these skills going to be transferable to get well-paying stable jobs once the inmates are released? Or are they just another form of exploitative labor with no future?

In the end, I predict that even though these programs will be politically popular, they will eventually become much less so among the inmates.