A judge in Wisconsin ruled that prison inmates are not entitled to minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The suit was filed on behalf of inmates at the Whiteville Correctional Facility in Tennessee. Wisconsin has a contract to send prisoners to that facility. The cafeteria at Whiteville is managed by a private corporation and lawyers for the inmates argued that because they were being managed by a private company they should be paid a minimum wage. Judge Kanne Posner argued that because inmates are not employees of a prison, they are not protected. Posner wrote that people are not imprisoned for the purpose of enabling them to earn a living. The prison puts them to work to offset prison costs.