Behind Bars - Doing Press Time

"If we've taken work away from anywhere we've taken work from the state printer," says Robert Thomas, of Prison Industries, in Sacramento, Calif.

That's right, says California State Printer Celeste Maia Cron—and they should leave that work alone.

"When they were originally authorized to do printing it was to...take idle hands and make them productive, while training inmates for jobs upon release," she says. "They are probably satisfying the first half of this equation, but are not training inmates who will go back into the public sector. From what I have been told they are using 'lifers' who will never be released in order to minimize turnover, and ignoring preparing parolees for private industry jobs."