Earn $2 a day!

If you think you've got it bad making minimum wage, you could always come to the jail and (if you're lucky enough to become a trustee) earn $2 a day.

A couple of months ago, I started working as a trustee in my pod. There are five trustees for approximately 72 inmates in a pod.

Trustees can basically do five jobs:

Houseman (who sweeps, empties trash and hands out cleaning supplies)
Cleaning bathrooms and toilets
Cleaning showers
Laundry
Barber

I started out by cleaning showers. There are six showers (for our pod) and they are cleaned two times a day. It takes between 15 - 25 minutes to clean one shower. I used bleach and shower cleaner and cleaned with a scrubbing sponge and a bucket.

I then got moved to do laundry. I work on laundry from 4 p.m. - 11 p.m. by popping loads in and out of the washer and dryer. I can do other things like read while stuff is washing.

Loads of t-shirts, boxers and socks from all the inmates are washed and dried. The washer and dryer here looks like a typical washer and dryer in a home. They're not commercial machines.

Each inmate's personal clothing items are labeled with their initials. When the stuff is all done, it's all put on a table and the inmates come and grab their own items. If something's not labeled, then it's inevitably grabbed by someone else.

Uniforms and sheets are sent to the laundry in another building. Uniforms on our pod are attractive. They look like surgical shirt and pants except they're navy blue with red stripes on the short sleeves.

Trustees wear red ball caps. Each trustee earns $2 a day, which can be used to buy commissary items. (See blog entry titled 'Menu of jail commissary items' for things we can buy and prices.)

I'll never complain about minimum wage again...