# The sixty-five-cent arrangement

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The sixty-five-cent arrangement," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-sixty-five-cent-arrangement/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The deal John Kiriakou struck with the chaplain at FCI Loretto: rather than keep his 65-cents-an-hour janitor's wage, he asked to be kept on the books while the money went to the next man on the list, and to stop coming to work — which is how he found the time to write Doing Time Like a Spy.*

- **Job:** Janitor in the chapel, FCI Loretto
- **Wage:** About 65 cents an hour
- **The deal:** Wage passed to the next prisoner; Kiriakou stopped attending
- **What it produced:** Doing Time Like a Spy

**The sixty-five-cent arrangement** is the informal deal [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) made with the chaplain at [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto) that freed him to write his prison memoir.

## The job

Kiriakou had offered on his first full day to teach — he had a bachelor's degree in Middle Eastern studies, a master's in policy analysis and completed doctoral coursework at Virginia — and was screamed at for the suggestion. He was made a janitor in the chapel instead, at about sixty-five cents an hour.[1][2]

The [chapel job](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/prison-chapel-job) had one incidental advantage: the chaplain liked him, because he was the only person working there who was not a sex offender. But the chaplain's budget was tight and the prison was badly overcrowded — built for around 680 people and holding 1,425, with men in bunks in the hallways.[2]

## The deal

Kiriakou proposed a trade that cost the chaplain nothing and helped somebody else. He did not want the work and did not need the sixty-five cents an hour; if the chaplain would keep him on the books and pass the money to the next man in line, he would simply stop coming in.[2]

The chaplain agreed, and Kiriakou used the recovered hours to write. He is clear that he had not gone in intending to write anything: *"they made it so easy, like they gave me so much material that I couldn't not write the book."*[3] The result was [Doing Time Like a Spy](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/doing-time-like-a-spy), written longhand because he had no access to a computer.

## See also

- [The chapel job](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/prison-chapel-job)
- [Doing Time Like a Spy](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/doing-time-like-a-spy)
- [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto)

## Sources

1. In Limine — John Kiriakou (2023-02-06), at 16:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud096a018e9&t=1002s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-02-06-in-limine-podcast-in-limine-john-kiriakou/
2. In Limine — John Kiriakou (2023-02-06), at 17:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud096a018e9&t=1070s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-02-06-in-limine-podcast-in-limine-john-kiriakou/
3. In Limine — John Kiriakou (2023-02-06), at 18:20. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud096a018e9&t=1100s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-02-06-in-limine-podcast-in-limine-john-kiriakou/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-sixty-five-cent-arrangement/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt