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Inmates learn life, job skills at Hickman's

By MARK COWLING, Staff Writer
Tri-Valley Dispatch October 10, 2006

Robert Wagner first went to work at Hickman Egg Ranch stacking eggs on pallets to be shipped out, a job known as "lumping boxes." He showed initiative, his superiors saw he had skills, and 11 months later he's looking forward to a promotion to swing-shift plant mechanic - after he's released from prison Oct. 16.

Working there is "helping me get my head right before I get out," he said. State inmates have worked at Hickman Egg Ranch through Arizona Correctional Industries for at least 10 years. Wagner, 44, said he enjoys the responsibility and the people he works with.

"We've got really good bosses here. They're good people to work for."

Hickman is a family business that goes back more than 60 years. If you shop for groceries in western Pinal County, it's a good possibility you eat Hickman eggs. They're also shipped to a few far-flung places like Hawaii, Complex Manager George Bango said.

The company currently has 1.2 million chickens who lay a million eggs, medium- through jumbo-size, daily at its Maricopa location. Business is growing, with an increase in sales almost every quarter, Bango said.

Eggs aren't the only sign the economy is good. Two or three businesses call ACI every week looking for labor, according to Bruce Farley, ACI's manager of business development. But not every business is right for ACI labor. Out of every 20 businesses ACI talks with, it may be feasible to do business with just one or two, Farley said.

Hickman, on the other hand, has been "one of our real successes," Farley said. "It's been a perfect partnership."

Currently, ACI supplies 1,300 inmate workers to 16 companies in 27 locations around the state. Inmate workers are often more productive than their civilian coworkers, because the job is a bigger part of the inmate's life, Farley said.

"Our objective is to help inmates learn life skills and job skills," Farley said, including "the best way to deal with a problem is not to get in the boss' face."

Every able-bodied inmate is required to work, Farley said. Some may rake dirt or do other jobs on the prison grounds for between 10 and 50 cents an hour. The more fortunate ones have jobs at places like Hickman's.

The company pays minimum wage to ACI. After ACI retains a portion for its administrative costs, the typical inmate wage is $2 per hour. Out of that $2, 30 percent goes to the state General Fund to help pay the costs of the inmate's incarceration. Another chunk goes into a mandatory savings account to help the inmate become re-established on the outside someday. The rest of the hourly wage, about 50 cents, is available to the inmate for immediate spending.

At Hickman's, inmates only work the day shift but still make up perhaps as much as 40 percent of the plant's total work force, said Production Manager Chris Irvine, himself a former inmate.

Fifteen inmate workers arrive in a van per day. According to the state prison's public information office, a total of 18 inmates are available to work at Hickman's Maricopa plant and another 32 work at the company's Arlington ranch in Maricopa County.

Most inmates working for ACI do so inside the prison walls; many are ineligible for outside jobs. If an inmate was convicted of a violent offense, he most likely is ineligible to go outside the prison fences for work.

Not all inmates can work themselves into a job, like Wagner has, once they are released. While they're working for ACI, inmates have no employee relationship with the company whose work they're doing. After they are released, the company may have a policy to not employ felons.

Hickman, however, will give these workers a chance. The Maricopa plant's production manager, Chris Irvine, first began here with ACI in 2002. After he was released in the spring of 2005, he was a maintenance manager in Hickman's Arlington plant before transferring to Maricopa. He said he's glad to support the program that made such a difference in his life. Besides the work and the pay, "my greatest satisfaction is working with guys who want to change their lives. ... it can be done," Irvine said.

Not all inmates are successful in ACI. Some companies will try to use an inmate on three or four different tasks before reporting that he's just not working out, Farley said. Wagner said the inmates encourage each other to try to keep that from happening at Hickman.

"We do a lot of that here. ... We've had people who wanted to quit the first day and they're still here today. Unity is a big thing here."

Wagner, who is completing a term at the Perryville prison for a drug offense, now makes $3.50 per hour. After Oct. 16, as a free man, he will probably start at $12.50 an hour, be eligible for benefits in 90 days "and the sky's the limit from there," Irvine said.
 

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