Inmates Replace Migrant Workers at Colorado Farms

DENVER — Colorado state prisoners are filling the farm labor void created by absent immigrant workers scared off by new state illegal immigration legislation.

Under a new Department of Corrections farm-labor program, 15 prisoners from the minimum-security La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo, Colo., are planting and harvesting crops on local farms — work performed until this year by illegal migrant labor.

The traditional farm laborers, who planted and picked vegetables on farms across southern Colorado , are avoiding the state this season after legislators last year passed one of United States ‘ toughest laws against illegal immigrants, officials say.

In May, La Vista inmates became the first prison laborers to work on southern Colorado farms under the new DOC farm-labor program. Up to 4,500 low-security, low-escape risk state inmates could be eligible for the farm program.

Local farmers pay the DOC approximately $9.50 per hour for each inmate. The majority of the money goes to cover the program’s operating expenses, including transportation and supervisors’ salaries, officials say. The inmates in the farm program receive roughly $4 per day for their efforts.

In an open letter distributed to various media outlets, local farmers backed the program for supplying labor to fill the vacancies left by the illegal migrant workers. Farmers say they had contacted local unemployment offices and advertised in newspapers in search of laborers, but received no responses.