Where are inmates working?

According to the Department of Corrections there are 145 prison inmates working at 20 employers in Northeast Wisconsin. Where? Initially, the Department of Corrections refused to tell us saying there were "...security concerns..." about the public knowing the names of the employers in the program.

But we stayed on the story by filing an appeal.

The DOC changed its position and provided us with a list of the employers, but placed strict security limits on the list. From the list, we did some of our own research and found that most of the inmates are punching the clock at area manufacturing companies while some are working for a non-profit and even a local university.

FOX 11 On Special Assignment began its investigation four months ago. We wanted to know how inmates could be working at a time when so many other people were out of work.

We asked Susan Ross, who oversees two work release sites in Northeast Wisconsin, what is done to ensure inmates aren't taking jobs from other people.

"We work closely with companies to determine what their recruitment efforts are for civilian employees. That's one of the first questions we ask when we're approached by a company asking if we have any inmates that would be able to work at their facility," Ross told us in November.

FOX 11 On Special Assignment found it's not just companies in the program. One inmate works at UW-Green Bay.

Tom Koch is 18-months in to a two-year prison sentence. The former lawyer was convicted of theft for stealing more than $2 million from a business client to feed his gambling addiction.

While he serves out his sentence, Koch is on work release making $8 an hour cleaning up the UW-Green Bay campus.

"There are a lot of rules," he said. "I'm not ever allowed to go inside any buildings. I'm not allowed to interact with students and I would never try to do that anyway. I just go about my job and I'm very happy to have it."

UW-Green Bay is happy to be part of the program.

"This is their last step before they come out and go into the real world. So we're giving them a chance to slowly phase back into society. Being a learning institution that's what we like to do so we're helping with their rehabilitation," said supervisor Mike Van Lanen. He says one job on campus is reserved for an inmate. It's been that way for 20 years, ever since prisoners were brought in to clean up after Bayfest.

When asked what the benefit of having an inmate work at UW-Green Bay was, Van Lanen replied, "The benefit to us is we have a person that's here everyday doing the same job all the time. With that, I have consistency. We do pay minimum wage to the inmates when they come out and they start. We don't have to pay any of the benefits. So it's a cost-savings for the taxpayer."

But that's just one job. What about the other places inmates are working? Of the 20 employers in Northeast Wisconsin on the list, nine of them, like UW-Green Bay, have one inmate working. The majority have less than five.

"Many of the jobs are entry level. They are minimum to lower wage paying jobs," said Mary Kay Sergo, the director of reentry for the DOC. Sergo says the work release program helps both the community and the inmates by giving the inmates skills they can use when they're released.

"We have an obligation as part of our mission to provide them with opportunities so that they have job skills and employment opportunities," Sergo said.

According to the DOC, the largest Northeast Wisconsin employer in the work release program is Ariens, a snow thrower manufacturing company based in Brillion. As of December 20th, the state told us Ariens had 77 inmates working.

A spokesperson for Ariens declined our request for an interview but told me the seasonal employment ended in mid-January. So the company currently has no inmates working. In the past, the company has said it has a hard time filling some positions.

A statement the company gave us in November said, "The work release program has been a good solution for Ariens to fill some of its seasonal, short-term needs for employees which fluctuate throughout the year." The statement went on to say: "Work release employees fill only jobs that Ariens had not been able to fill through traditional means."

The next largest employer on the list is a manufacturer in Shawano with 14 inmates, followed by a meat processing company in Green Bay with nine. Neither company responded to our repeated requests for interviews.

The next largest employer on the list, PMI, did talk with us. The company that runs the Resch Center has eight inmates who work the overnight shift. They are paid $8 and hour to clean up and set up for events.

"The shift normally starts later in the evening, usually on a Friday or Saturday night and we've always found it really challenging to find people who want to work those hours. Normally 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and maybe two or three days a week and very sporadic because it's based on when the events are in the complex," said Paula Kirchman, vice-president