In 2000, 53 percent of state and federal prisoners (48 percent and 100 percent, respectively) who were eligible and able to work had a work assignment., The type and required skill level of work conducted by people in prison varies. The vast majority was assigned to general maintenance positions (39 percent of state prisoners; 83 percent of federal prisoners). Smaller numbers worked in correctional industry programs (6 percent and 23 percent) and in farming or agricultural work assignments (3 percent and 0.2 percent). Work assignments are less common in jails-not surprising given the short length of stay for many inmates. About one quarter of people in jail have institution-based jobs.

Another category of correctional work is work release. Work-release programs that permit soon-to-be-released individuals to work outside the prison walls during the day and to return to the prison or a halfway house in the evenings were popular with departments of corrections through the 1970s. More recently, poor research results (e.g., failure to realize cost-savings and no decrease in recidivism rates), a decline in federal funding, and political concern about high-profile re-offending by work-release inmates have reduced the prevalence of such programs. In 2000, less than a third of all correctional institutions operated work-release programs, and only about two percent of the nation's inmates participated in them.