Morgan O. Reynolds

About the author: Morgan O. Reynolds is the director of the Criminal Justice Center for the National Center for Policy Analysis as well as a professor of economics at Texas A&M University.

The inmate population in America's prisons stands today at over 1.1 million and continues to grow at an enormous rate. Society should put prisoners to work for the private sector so that their labor can be used productively. Prison labor creates new jobs outside the prison system, lightens taxpayer burdens, and encourages innovation in the private sector—the key to economic growth. Policy reforms need to be enacted now so that America can take advantage of this untapped resource.

My name is Morgan O. Reynolds and I am Director of the Criminal Justice Center at the Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis...