The California Supreme Court today decided In re Jenkins, S175242:

A prison inmate's participation in a prison work program may favorably affect that inmate's custody level. Such participation can cause the inmate to be considered a reduced security risk, which in turn may cause the inmate to be placed in a lower security level institution. We must decide whether an inmate who is willing to work but, without his or her fault, is not assigned to a work program may receive the benefit of work participation for classification purposes. The applicable regulations say no; they provide that actual work participation, and not mere willingness to work, is required for an inmate to receive a lower security evaluation. Petitioner contends the regulations are invalid. In accordance with the deference courts generally give to prison authorities in promulgating regulations concerning prison security, we conclude the regulations are valid. It is rational, and not arbitrary, to consider an inmate's actual work performance for purposes of classifying and housing that inmate.

The decision is correct, but we should be providing work to any inmate who wants to work and whose security classification permits it.  One place to start is to reexamine restrictions on the sale of prison-made goods.  There are now large segments of the economy where substantially all of the goods are made overseas, and prison-made goods could be sold in these segments without displacing American workers.