Crocktown

The idea started with replacing just school custodians, but city leaders quickly realized that was only the beginning of possible savings. "Custodians don't make much money, so replacing them only saved a little," says council member Lucy Kong. "When we started thinking 'outside the box', we started realizing big savings. Our budget is almost balanced now."

As the plan currently stands, inmates will replace all city custodians, maintenance workers, clerical staff, teachers, firefighters, police officers, and the city treasurer. Kong says she is not worried about public safety since the inmates will be constantly monitored by guards, which she argues makes the public safer than the status quo: "Say a non-inmate secretary lunges at you; who's going to restrain them?"

Kong says that labor is by far the largest expense in the city's budget, and that using inmates on work-release programs means not only lower pay per hour but also not having to pay for benefits like Social Security, retirement, and health care. She says the likelihood of inmates trying to escape is slim, because it would mean them giving up a steady job, a mortgage-free dwelling, and three meals a day. "If anything," she says, "I expect to see more people trying to become inmates so they can be part of this program. This is not our first choice, but it's a way to maintain services in the face of major budget shortfalls. And isn't this better than outsourcing jobs to India or China? At least this way it's still Americans doing the work."