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Jan 2025
38m 36s

Highway Signs and Prison Labor

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher
About this episode

Incarcerated people grow crops, fight wildfires, and manufacture everything from prescription glasses to highway signs — often for pennies an hour. Zachary Crockett takes the next exit, in this special episode of The Economics of Everyday Things.

 

  • SOURCES:
    • Laura Appleman, professor of law at Willamette University.
    • Christopher Barnes, inmate at the Franklin Correctional Center.
    • Lee Blackman, general manager at Correction Enterprises.
    • Gene Hawkins, senior principal engineer at Kittelson and professor emeritus of civil engineering at Texas A&M University.
    • Renee Roach, state signing and delineation engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
    • Brian Scott, ex-inmate, former worker at the Correction Enterprises printing plant.
    • Louis Southall, warden of Franklin Correctional Center.

 

 

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