11-17 IAN Prison Pickers

 Go to prison and learn a trade. Apple picking. In a recent article in the Capital Press, I learned that an apple orchardist was so desperate for workers, that he paid the Olympic Correction Center $22 an hour for inmates to pick valuable varieties of apples. Now in my mind, $22 an hour isn’t a bad wage, particularly if I am out of work and have been idle for some time. It begs the question, not that I have anything against prisoners, but why in the world aren’t there more people who are unemployed going to apple orchards and filling out a job application.  I asked Michael Stolp, ?Vice President – Market Research and Development  for NW. Farm Credit Services. “Is it worth my while if I am unemployed and I have a hungry family, can I make at least enough to eke out a living as opposed to standing on a street corner with a cardboard sign? To answer your question, if someone was in financial hardship and they needed a job and they were in a community where there were orchardists picking apples, what our field reports tell us is that a number of those orchards have signs next to the road posting for help and while those may not be family living wages for an extended period, certainly what they could do is provide some economic benefit to people who needed work. Again I don’t know why those connections are not occurring.”