Wisconsin was the first state to let some incarcerated people work in the community, allowing them to save money and pay for room and board. Today, prisoners say there aren’t nearly enough of these jobs to go around, and prison officials say they don’t keep count.
Natalie Yahr / Wisconsin Watch
Natalie Yahr rejoined Wisconsin Watch in March 2025 as a statewide pathways to success reporter, working in partnership with Open Campus. Her coverage explores the skills residents need to build thriving careers and how leaders can forge pathways to family-supporting work. Natalie first joined Wisconsin Watch in 2018 as an intern. She returned after spending more than five years at the Cap Times, where she covered Madison’s local economy, focusing on challenges and opportunities for workers, entrepreneurs and job seekers. Her work has also been published by WWNO-FM, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Journalism Ethics, Scalawag, Columbia Journalism Review and the New York Times. Before becoming a full-time journalist, she trained as a Spanish-English interpreter and coached adult students working to earn their high school equivalency diplomas. Natalie majored in ethics and economics at University of California-Davis and holds a master’s degree in journalism from UW-Madison.
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