Supervisors notified of partnership between prison, Trinity

“The law requires that we notify you. There is no action you need to take today,” Mapes said. “These will be minimum security prisoners ... and when they are released, they will leave incarceration with job skills that will help them down the road.”

Dan Clark of IPI said the state’s work release program is available only to employers who have demonstrated an inability to fill the jobs through normal advertising and with assistance from Iowa Workforce Development. A second provision of state law requires the prisoners be paid as though they were regular employees.

“They must be paid the wage that Iowa Workforce Development says is the appropriate wage for a welder, or say a forklift driver, as examples,” he said. “So, the inmate is paid the going wage but keeps 20 percent of the pay. The rest goes toward taxes, restitution — if any must be paid — and to cover the cost of their incarceration.”

Clark said IPI already has a couple of similar work-release programs in place at the Newton Correctional Facility. Most are working as welders or machinists, jobs that pay well in the private sector after their incarceration has ended.

“And, if they decide to stay with the job after their incarceration is over, they can do that, too,” he added.

Mapes said training for the welders will be provided through a program offered at the Newton DMACC campus. Trinity also will provide on-the-job training. He stressed the program would not be displacing local workers.

One citizen in attendance, Larry Pauley, disagreed. He said the wage Trinity is willing to pay — $11 to $13 per hour to start — is too low for skilled laborers, such as welders. He said private-sector welders elsewhere, even in Iowa, can make as much as $30 to $35 per hour.

“They aren’t filling those positions because they’re not paying a wage that will attract the employees,” he said.