LINCOLN- Across Nebraska, around 500 women and men confined within the state's prisons are manufacturing products and providing services across 15 shops for government offices and schools bound by state law requiring public entities to buy from them. "Many Nebraskans may not know that people in our prisons are making license plates or cleaning the governor's mansion for wages that are just a fraction of the minimum wage," said Sam Petto, communications director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska.

According to Nebraska statute, "all departments, institutions, and agencies of this state which are supported in whole or in part by taxation for state purposes...shall purchase from the Department of Correctional Services all articles required by them produced, printed, or manufactured by offenders confined in facilities of the Department of Correctional Services." These inmate-crafted products are governed by Cornhusker State Industries, or CSI.

CSI provides products like tables, lounge furniture, bookcases, beds, and more, and operate in markets populated by Nebraska schools, government offices, courts, universities, and parks. Petto and the ACLU argue that CSI is "mostly a defense for cheap labor," and that "any benefits that come with programs that pay workers as little as $1.21 per data are far outweighed by the injustice of that system." Despite this, Ryan Spohn, director of the Nebraska Center for Justice Research at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, believes CSI to be "one of the better programs" offered to inmates. "It's a real job," said Spohn, "They learn real skills."

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