We've all heard the phrase crime doesn't pay, right? Well, in Maine, I'm not sure that fits,

because it does pay in Maine, literally. Today's real story is about people behind bars

pulling down bigger paychecks than some of the hardworking law-abiding, tax-paying folks,

paying to keep them locked up. And think about this. If they're making

money in prison, then it's all net. I'm going to talk about how they actually give a little back

to the state, but they've got no living expenses. One of the things you always have to calculate

when you're saying how much does somebody make is you've got to say, well, how much are they consuming?

If you make $50,000 a year and you spend $48, you're only making a couple thousand dollars a year because you're consuming $48 out of 50.

Let's look at some headlines. In Maine, prisoners are thriving in remote jobs, and other states are taking notice.

Another headline, some prisoners in Maine are making over 60 grand a year working remotely from prison.

Another headline, man in prison gets hired as software engineer at Silicon Valley startup works every day from cell.

Now, you probably didn't know this was even an option.

You didn't mishear any of that.

Prisoners are working and banking cash in prison.

Yes, they do get to keep it.

Meet Preston Thorpe.

He's 11 years into a 15 to 30 year sentence in Maine for nonviolent drug offenses.

Thorpe has a job, but we're not talking about pushing a mop.

He's a senior software engineer who's logging into his laptop and jumping on Zoom meetings all from his cell.

Oh, and get this.

He's pulling in over a hundred thousand dollars a

year. He doesn't have any overhead. Three hots on the cot. He's got no commute. He's got no

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