It appears the inmates at some of our many fine correctional institutions here in California are not altogether happy with their current working

conditions.

Turns out the pay really stinks.

The wages are nothing short of scandalous, according to J. Tony Serra, a Bay Area attorney and former inmate of the federal prison camp at Lompoc, who is now suing the U.S. Bureau of Prisons over inmate pay.

Serra, who earned 19 cents an hour as an inmate, but is back at work after serving nine months for failing to pay income taxes, believes the 12 to 50 cents per hour inmates earn for prison work is tantamount to "slave labor."

Slave labor -- it's a phrase that conjures up visions of rock quarries, chain gangs and rough, sweaty men laboring under a blazing sun and the merciless stare of hard-hearted prison guards. In the suit he filed Tuesday, Serra even invoked the constitutional ban on slavery as part of his argument.

Harsh stuff from a guy whose job it was to water the prison lawn.

The question is, why are we paying inmates at all?

There are about 171,000 inmates in California's prisons and correctional facilities and the cost to feed, clothe and house each is more than $34,000 a year, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation figures.

California also is home to 22 of the 114 prisons in the federal system, which has a total inmate population of 195,000. Felicia Ponce, spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Prisons, declined to talk about the Serra case, but said the cost to support each inmate comes to $64.19 per day.

In calculating his wages, Serra apparently neglected to figure in a handsome, taxpayer-funded benefits package that includes medical and dental coverage; bennies that thousands of law-abiding citizens can't afford. Inmates, who work Monday through Friday just like regular folk with weekends off, also may take advantage of the prison's myriad recreational, educational and vocational activities, as well as a host of "prosocial value" programs like drug and alcohol treatment and parenting classes.

Another perk Serra seems to have forgotten is that state and federal inmates also get time-off-for-good-behavior credit for the hours they work or go to classes.

Not good enough, says the 72-year-old Serra, who believes his fellow law breakers are, at the very least, entitled to the federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. Really, he does.

Serra condemned the prison industry as a "dirty secret" because inmates aren't paid a real wage for providing prison services and for the products they manufacture and sell to government entities. Naturally he failed to note the rehabilitative opportunities many of these job represent for those inmates waiting in line to get them.

In announcing the lawsuit at a news conference at his San Francisco North Beach office, Serra told reporters his suit wasn't about money, but about the plight of the inmate workers; about injustice and basic fairness.

Please. If the system were truly fair, inmates and parolees would be working to repay taxypayers the cost of their incarceration. But life is not always fair, an immutable truth for which California lawbreakers should be deeply grateful.