Hiring prisoners to pick the tail end of their apple crop was a “last ditch” effort, but Scott McDougall believes it paid off. With 8,000 bins of an exclusive club variety left to pick, only 50 workers left in his harvest crews, and winter weather fast ­approaching, he was desperate. Last October, Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire, already alerted by state horticultural leaders of a labor shortage that was causing growers to abandon fruit-laden orchards, announced she would allow low-security-risk prisoners to pick the state’s apple crop. However, growers using the prisoners would have to bear the full costs (housing, […]