Striking federal inmates demand higher salaries while in custody

Here's a group of people who may not get as much sympathy as they think they deserve: federal inmates demanding higher salaries while in custody.

Tough economic times are hurting Canadians outside of prison, but they are also catching up to those in custody, where wages for work done behind bars are being cut by 30 per cent. An average inmate is already said to make $3 a day preparing food, cleaning facilities and collecting garbage.

Inmates in several federal institutions across the country have gone on strike and, according to CBC News, are furious that the government is not more focused on rehabilitating convicts.

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John Curcio, chair of the inmate committee at Ontario's Bath Institution, told the network the money is often sent to family members or saved to prepare for an inmate's return to society.

This is not the first time Canadian inmates have launched organized opposition against the federal government. Earlier this year, a group in British Columbia's Mountain Institution had their mission to establish a union blocked by the labour board.

The Public Service Labour Relations Board at the time ruled that inmates do not have an employer-employee relationship with the federal government, a testament that has some bearing in the most recent complaints.

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That case, however, was focused more on working conditions than wages.

The wage cuts come as part of the government's Deficit Reduction Action Plan, introduced in 2010 and is said to cut $4 million from the correctional service's $2.6 billion budget.

The inmates are probably not going to get much support from those on the outside, who are facing the realities of a tough economy in their own way. But cutting the salaries is like nickel and diming those who rely on nickels and dimes.

If they work to earn that money, as little of it as there may be, they are as entitled to it as the rest of us. Considering inmate compensation hasn't gone up in 32 years, you could say they are already feeling the brunt of the federal government's tight purse strings.

Not that the argument is likely to garner much sympathy. Inmates are inmates for a reason; the rest of us won't shed many tears for their plight.

Of course, I'd like them to leave prison with an appreciation for a dollar earned. I'd also like them to have a nest egg of their own, so they don't come looking for mine.

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