A new experiment in remote work … from the inside

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When people in Maine prisons started getting laptops to use in their cells for online classes and homework, it sparked this new idea. Could they have laptops in their cells to work remotely for real outside world jobs, too??? And get real outside world wages?

Today on the show, we have reporting from Maine Public Radio’s Susan Sharon about a new experiment in prisons: remote jobs … paying fair market wages, for people who are incarcerated.

Listen to Susan’s original reporting here:

- In Maine, prisoners are thriving in remote jobs and other states are taking notice

- Cracking the code: How technology and education are changing life in Maine prisons

Related episodes:

- Fine and Punishment

- Getting Out Of Prison Sooner

- The Prisoner's Solution

- Paying for the Crime

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This episode was hosted by Sarah Gonzalez with reporting from Susan Sharon. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler with reporting help from Vito Emanuel. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Robert Rodriguez, with help from Patrick Murray. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:07.0	Well, tell me, who is this Darlene George and how did she make all this stuff happen?
0:12.8	Oh my God.
0:15.1	Well, Darlene George is a regular young lady from Brooklyn, New York.
0:23.5	Darlene George is talking to Susan Sharon, a local public radio reporter at Maine Public
0:27.7	Radio who interviewed Darlene recently.
0:30.2	How old are you?
0:31.3	I'll tell you that off the record.
0:36.2	Oh, well, I'll tell you too. Okay, thanks.
0:39.5	Susan is talking to Darlene because Darlene has kind of a remarkable work situation right now.
0:45.3	Darlene is a grants program coordinator at a local health center in Maine.
0:49.7	So I monitor, scout, and look for grants, making sure we stay within regulations, guidelines
0:58.2	of each grant.
0:59.5	She gets paid a salary.
1:00.6	She's not hourly.
1:01.4	But she generally tries to work seven to five-ish.
1:04.4	But if I am needed before the fact, I'm there.
1:08.2	If I'm needed after the fact, I'm there. If I have a project I'm working on and it
1:13.9	tells me working on a Saturday or Sunday, guess what? I'm doing it. That's my job.
1:19.9	Is it hard to do your job, you know, with the distractions and the noise around you and that sort of thing?
1:27.1	Well, what I will say is that I couldn't be more supported as if I was on the outside.
1:37.1	The outside.
	...

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