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Planet Money
Planet Money

A new experiment in remote work … from the inside

November 07, 2025 • 28m

Summary

⏱️ 8 min read

Overview

Planet Money explores a groundbreaking prison work program in Maine where incarcerated individuals work remote jobs for market-rate wages, sometimes earning six figures. The episode examines how this experiment is reshaping prison economics, featuring stories of prisoners like Darlene George and Preston Thorpe who work full-time jobs from their cells, and explores the complex economics of prison labor, victim restitution, and rehabilitation.

Darlene George: Working From Her Prison Cell

Darlene George, a grants program coordinator serving a 40-year sentence for murder, works a full-time remote job from Maine Correctional Center. She monitors grants for a local health center, working seven to five-ish from her prison room with full knowledge from her employer. Her colleagues know she's incarcerated, and she earns enough that she prefers other inmates not know her exact salary. This isn't typical prison labor—it's a regular job with market wages.

  • Darlene works as a grants program coordinator from prison, monitoring and scouting grants while staying within regulations
  • She's been working completely full-time for nearly two years from her prison room, with a sign indicating when she's in Zoom meetings
  • Darlene is serving 40 years for murder with an earliest release date in 2040, currently 16 years into her sentence
  • Her colleagues at the health center are fully aware she's working from prison
  • She earns enough that she prefers to keep her salary private from other inmates
" I couldn't be more supported if I was on the outside. "
" I have a 40-year sentence. I have been in here for 16 years, and I think my earliest release date is in 2040. "

Preston Thorpe: The Six-Figure Prison Software Engineer

Preston Thorpe, 33, is a senior software engineer making six figures—double what prison guards earn—while serving a 20-year sentence for drug crimes involving synthetic opioids. A self-described computer nerd since age 13, Preston turned his life around in Maine's prison system by contributing to open-source coding projects. His exceptional work caught the attention of Turso CEO Glauber Costa, who specifically opened a position for him despite the complications of hiring someone incarcerated.

  • Preston makes six figures as a senior software engineer, which is double what corrections officers guarding him earn
  • He's nine years into a 20-year sentence for buying drugs on the dark web and possessing a synthetic opioid more deadly than fentanyl
  • Preston became a top contributor to SQLite rewrite project, one of four or five people doing very high quality work
  • He passed the background check because he'd been in prison for nine years but the check only goes back seven years, making it his 'cleanest background check'
  • Preston bought a manufactured home across from his parents' house while incarcerated, using his prison job earnings
" And now I feel like my life has a purpose. Like, there's no situation right now that would cause me to do something where I would risk losing, like, my job, my computer. "
" He is actually our cleanest background check. He doesn't have a parking ticket. And his background check is cleaner than mine. "
" I kind of made a promise to myself that I would take advantage of every hour that I had here and started looking at it like an opportunity to make something of myself. "

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