However, contracts were pending with another eight businesses and 220 inmate employees. Prisoners who participate in Joint Venture employment can be eligible for jobless benefits after their release from prison. However, their wages are subject to deductions for taxes, prison room and board, restitution to crime victims, and support for their families, and they must set aside 20 percent in trust that will be available to them upon release from prison. The program s employers can receive state and federal tax credits equal to a share of each inmate s wages. The size of the benefit is based on the size of the jobless person s previous salary.
Benefits end when a person finds work.
Benefits are financed by state and federal payroll taxes paid by employers. State UI taxes paid by an individual employer can increase if the employer s layoff patterns cause the employer s UI account to show significant activity. This proposition would prohibit the payment of unemployment benefits to released prisoners solely on the basis of their participation in Joint Venture employment. Proposition 194 also would require authorities to consider paroling inmates who had worked in Joint Venture jobs to the counties where those private employers are located, if the employers expressed an interest in hiring the parolees. Current state law generally requires inmates to be released to the counties where they were sentenced.