A state audit revealed that unsupervised inmates at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution stood on laundry scales to make the loads heavier and boost their cash bonuses.
Oregon Corrections Enterprises, the business arm of the corrections inmate-work program, has repaid the prison $311,819 for overcharges between March 1998 and June 2000. Administrator Michael Taaffe said several inmates were fired from the laundry, which is considered a plum job.
Inmates who worked in the laundry during the suspect period must repay portions of their merit bonuses - up to $1,500 in some cases - for a total of $48,081. Inmates received merit pay according to laundry volume, ranging from $8 to $150 monthly.
The audit was requested by the prison's superintendent, Jean Hill, who was so alarmed by the steep laundry bills that she stopped paying them a year ago.