Many workers had not tasted a slice in five years. Not long after that happened, there was an issue that came up where several pairs of jeans were put together wrong, and some guys actually spent time on their breaks correcting these just so the percentage wouldn't rise. But Mr. Borchert said none of his workers were forced into their jobs. Supervising inmates does have its downsides. At Prison Blues, some workers show the effects of powerful drugs taken for their psychiatric disorders.
Managers often have to help others deal with personal crises, like alienation from their families.
And with the inmates' suspicion of authority, it often takes half a year just to win their trust. You're the Man. Partly as a result, team-building is much harder than on the outside, Mr. Wise said. No inmate wants to be thought of as an informer, he said, so it is tough to get one worker to point out another's mistakes. Mr. Wise said he first learned this lesson three years ago when he asked who had botched a pair of jeans, only to get silent stares.