This podcast, it's a Costerton Touchstone production.

Every prisoner within one week of arrival at Loretto must find a job.

It's one of the rules.

The thing is, you see, there are four times as many prisoners as there are jobs.

So it's a really dumb rule, and it's why most jobs at Loretto are either

make work or no work. We'll be telling a story about corruption inside the prison system this season,

so please make note. This kind of bullshit is baked into the architecture. It may not have been

created out of corruption, but it breeds corruption.

Lots of prisoners become standby orderlies, or technically they're on call in case of some

sort of janitorial emergency, whatever that is.

They make 60 cents a month for doing literally nothing.

Just as well, I doubt any of them know much about, let's say, plumbing.

The worst possible jobs, though, are in food service.

That said, prisoners who work in the kitchen get larger portions, and they can steal whatever

they want.

Landscaping and snow removal are also horrible jobs.

The work call when it's snowing is 4 a.m.

For a very brief moment, my idealism got the best of me.

I volunteered to be a GED tutor. I figured I could genuinely help someone learn to read and graduate

with a high school equivalency. My prison counselor slapped that down immediately. His exact words to me were, if I wanted you to teach a

fucking class, I would have asked you to teach a fucking class. He shouted that right at my face,

so point taken. Henceforth, I would resist all urges to help these crooked cops run their fucking

...