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In Maine, remote jobs give prisoners a lifeline

Remote work has spread far and wide since the pandemic spurred a work-from-home revolution of sorts, but perhaps no place more unexpectedly than behind prison walls.

Unlike incarcerated residents with jobs in the kitchen or woodshop who earn just a few hundred dollars a month, remote workers make fair-market wages, allowing them to pay victim restitution fees and legal costs, provide child support, and contribute to Social Security and other retirement funds. Liberty — who first set foot in the old Maine State Prison as a 6-year-old visiting his father and started making changes when he became warden there in 2015 — increased educational and vocational opportunities and introduced new programs to treat addiction and mental health issues. Remote workers’ paychecks are sent to the state, which deducts room and board, child support, and other court-ordered fees, then transferred into personal accounts that can be accessed to buy snacks and supplies at the canteen or to send money home.

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