DECEMBER 19, 1995

NASHVILLE - Over the din of presses at the Nash Correctional Institution print plant, inmates listen closely to plant staff and learn new skills as they save taxpayer dollars printing documents for government agencies.

"Inmates can expect to work when they reach our state prisons," Superintendent Harry Allsbrook told reporters at the print plant today. "We want these men to repay the state for their crimes while developing skills they can use to get a good job after their imprisonment."

There are 127 inmates assigned to work at the print plant. They learn press operations working in the plant's composition, stripping, press and bindery departments. The plant completes an average of 150 jobs a week that run from 500 copies of a government worker's business card to one million copies of a government document.

Entry level pay for inmates is thirteen cents an hour. Experienced inmate workers in skilled jobs can earn three dollars a day. Those that work hard are rewarded with job promotions and the opportunity to participate in apprenticeship. The N.C. Department of Labor offers an apprenticeship program for up to 58 inmates. Completing the three year program earns an inmate a certificate of apprenticeship.

"Governor Hunt wants inmates put to work," print plant manager Robert Leon said. "We continue to put more inmates to work and put them in jobs that help the state like this printing plant."

The print plant is one of thirty Correction Enterprise operations in North Carolina prisons where more than 2100 inmates are put to work. Correction Enterprise returns $940,000 dollars back to the state every year, pays five percent of annual profits into the state's crime victims compensation fund and pays the wages of all employed inmates.

State and local governments save tax dollars by purchasing the products made with inmate labor.

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Nash Correctional Institution

Superintendent Harry Allsbrook (919) 459-4455

Nash Correctional Institution is a close security prison for adult male felons, housing a maximum of 690 inmates. A small minimum security prison opened at the same site in the 1930s. The final housing unit of the new close security prison and the print plant opened in 1993.

The print plant has been at Nash since March 1994. The plant moved there from Central Prison where it had operated for 79 years.

The specialty sign plant has been at Nash since October 1994. The plant opened as an expansion of the highway sign plant at Franklin Correctional Center. With the closing of the street sign plant at Piedmont Correctional Institution, the Nash plant now manufactures street signs for local government and state agencies.

PRISONER ASSIGNMENTS