Food so good it’s criminal?

Demand for artisanal goods such as goat cheese, wine, tilapia, and even custom motorcycles has resulted in a strange pairing of bed partners: prisoners working at small farms and manufacturers. Businesses are offered an inexpensive, flexible workforce, while prisoners learn skills and work habits useful upon their release. 

One prison-run dairy farm in Colorado now employs six inmates who milk 1,000 goats four times a day, supplying the milk for cheeses sold at Whole Foods. The theory is, employing felons will become an effective, feel-good, taste-good endeavor for reducing recidivism and helping small businesses.

—Roma Rowland, Administrative Assistant

Departments of Asian Art and Japanese & Korean Art

June 26

Image: Colorado Correctional Industries

Source: JENNIFER ALSEVER, “Prison labor’s new frontier: Artisanal foods,” Fortune, June 2