It is interesting to me that we are releasing this episode on equal pay day. Not because I want to distract from women's equal pay but because it is a common cause (and there are plenty of women in prison earning pennies on the hour).

The Shawshank Redemption is not just a great movie, it gets a lot of the details of prison life right. Scenes from the movie were quoted every day in every prison and jail I was in.

The article I referred to as "Talk Poverty" was published on many platforms, the point is that the people involved in the system are very aware that they are getting benefit from cheap labor.

The never-ending debate over if prison labor is exploitation or a way to fill dead time is oe-bozelko-prison-labor-20171020-story.html">discussed in this LA Times article. The article also explains the problem of having too many inmates and too few jobs.

There was a recent time when many major companies were using prison labor, many of these companies have stopped using this practice.

If you are wondering how exploitative prison labor is legal it is important to remember two things: 1) the 13th exception allows slavery in the case of criminals and 2) prisoners, for that reason, are exempt from the fair labor standards act.

We talk a lot about California inmate firefighters, this was the article I read first about incarcerated-women-who-fight-californias-wildfires.html">the story of Shawna Lynn Jones.

Michigan's Vocational Village program has received a great deal of press coverage.

There are many primers on paid apprenticeships for prisoners, this is a decent guide from the Center for American Progress.

Yes, prisoners can learn next economy skills like programming in prison. I have long imagined a world in which every inmate has access to Kahn Academy-style classes from tablets. Just imagine the difference meaningful educational programming could make in the lives of people shut-off from the economy (often for decades).

Articles like this one about soft skills training in women' prisons can help you get a feel for the entire topic of soft skills in prison.

You can also learn more about soft skills as a concept in general in this good overview of soft skills training.

The Prison Creative Arts Project in Michigan does incredible work, the most recent Exhibition of Prisoner Art just ended.

Here is the guide to all 65 recaps that I wrote for the series Orange Is the New Black

The reason most Universities don't participate more fully in prison education probably has something to do with the grants-prisoners.html">ending of Pell Grants for prisoners.