By Ryan J Foley
Madison, Wisconsin - Sex offenders being held at a Wisconsin facility are demanding their pay be restored from $2 (about R14) per hour to the minimum wage, which they had received until recently.
Offenders at Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Centre argue the state's $6.50 (about R47) per hour minimum wage - which they earned until February - should apply to them since they are civilly committed patients and not inmates.
Program Director Steve Watters ordered the pay cut as a cost-cutting measure.
More than 50 offenders committed to the centre have filed complaints More than 50 offenders committed to the centre have filed complaints with the state Equal Rights Division, which is investigating the matter, agency spokesperson Dick Jones said.
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The offenders have served their prison sentences but authorities say they are too dangerous to be released until they undergo treatment at Sand Ridge, in Mauston about 129km north-west of Madison. They perform jobs around the facility as part of their treatment.
Work by inmates has long been exempt from labour laws, and two federal judges in Wisconsin ruled last year the Fair Labour Standards Act, which includes the federal minimum wage, does not apply to committed patients.
State lawyers have determined that Wisconsin's minimum wage law also doesn't apply, in part because patients receive food, housing and medicine, Watters said in a January 30 memo.
The offenders say that does not apply to them.
Wisconsin law allows the state to indefinitely hold convicted felons determined by courts to be sexually violent and likely to commit another offence. The offenders can petition for supervised release after 18 months but most are held far longer.
Eighteen other states have similar civil commitment laws but groups such as the National Conference of State Legislatures do not track what patients in those programs are paid.
Watters told the patients they would still be earning more than Wisconsin prison inmates, who make as little as five cents an hour. - Sapa-AP
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