User:Klarissa Beaton/Federal Prison Industries

History:

The Federal Prison Industry was created as a way for inmates to maintain a job that promoted their rehabilitation back into society. This rehabilitation includes payment, ranging from $0.23 to $1.15 per hour, as well as learning new skills provided by the job industry the inmate was given. There are a variety of different aspects under which one could pursue a job, including agribusiness, clothing and textiles, electronics, recycling, office furniture, and services. If an inmate has a debt they must pay off, they are required by law to put at least 50% of their earnings towards paying off this debt. The Federal Prison Industry had many restrictions that made it difficult to compete with other industries. Following World War II, the FPI began to lose these barriers though. This is due to the fact that they no longer had to be funded by the military to make the resources needed for the war. They then found new funding from civilians tending to their day to day needs, and later when the Korean War began, the military funding was established again. It was not until the 1960s when the idea of rehabilitation of prisoners was fully embraced. The inmates were provided with jobs to help them appear to be apart of something and essential to their workplace, so they could be seen with potential again. In 1977, FPI gained the trade name UNICOR. The prisons began to overpopulate in the 1980s after stricter laws became present. This led UNICOR to be more aware of their organization and production of inmates and their corresponding jobs, making the industry remain efficient for its customers. In hopes to create and sustain a new client base, UNICOR decided to campaign, but this brought about controversy within citizens. Although it did benefit them by bringing them more clients, it also made some individuals fear that it was at an unfair advantage and would negatively affect the private sector by providing low cost goods and not having to pay the workers as much. UNICOR countered this with the fact that they do not actually impact the private sector significantly and it is beneficial for the inmates to take part in by giving them life skills. The industry was modernized beginning in 2000 following new technological advances and adopting the use of the Internet, thus maximizing product efficiency, delivery, and communications. Since the early 2000s up until the present day, UNICOR has only increased in the number of inmates it has employed and further embraced its philosophy of improving the lives of inmates throughout the country. In the most recent years, beginning in 2011, UNICOR has been working on an environmental initiative plan to create more eco-friendly ways of working in the industry. Inmates are now able to receive certifications in various aspects while in prison as well, such as a commercial drivers’ license, SAP technician, and quality improvement associate as of 2016. UNICOR is constantly updating to stay in tune with the rest of the changing world and continues to supply jobs to 18,000 inmates every year.

Purpose/Debate:

There is a large debate over the Federal Prison Industry and its motivations. Some people believe that the FPI is just a business competing with other industries and making a profit off of its workers, while others believe it is what it was originally intended to be- a place for troubled inmates to go through rehabilitation and better themselves and learn skills in order to one day go back into the real world as a “new” person who has grown from their past. The individuals fighting against the FPI oppose its values because it often requires mandatory purchases from other companies. Opposers claim that this is unfair to be required to purchase these products because it is only profiting incarcerated individuals and a “monopoly”-like corporation. Citizens have become angered by this because they believe it is taking away jobs that are rightfully theirs, rather than prisoners who have committed horrific crimes. It is also discussed how this provides many advantages over that of the private industry, seeing that the FPI is a federal government organization, it does not have to pay any of the taxes that an industry would normally have to pay. This allows the FPI to maintain a higher profit off of its workers since they are not being paid as highly. The FPI then argues that it has to make up for these advantages through not gaining as much valuable work as the private industry has. They claim that the workers are not as highly skilled and trained, seeing that they are inmates, and they do not care to produce as quality work compared to those workers in the private industry who generally work hard and are paid to produce superior work. The prison industry also notes that they have to cover the costs of additional expenses that other industries do not have to worry about. These additional costs would include paying the wages of correctional officers who need to watch over the prisoners while they are working to make sure none of them stray from what they are supposed to be doing and the workplace remains a safe environment to be in. Other benefits of the Federal Prison Industry that are discussed is the fact that it promotes a more substantial change in the inmate. Providing the inmate with a job gives them something to do in their free time while in prison, rather than wasting time or getting into trouble. Studies have also proved that once inmates have been released from prison, after having worked in the prison, they were more likely to become employed within only a couple months than those who did not work in prison. The studies also proved it to be beneficial for those inmates who maintained jobs to keep from relapsing and being incarcerated again.

Works Cited

Analyst in Crime Policy. “Federal Prison Industries: Background, Debate, Legislative History, and Policy Options.” EveryCRSReport.com, Congressional Research Service, 11 May 2016, https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL32380.html.

“Factories With Fences: The History of Federal Prison Industries.” Unicor, Federal Prison Industries, Inc., 1996, www.unicor.gov/publications/corporate/FactoriesWithFences_FY19.pdf.

James, Nathan. “Federal Prison Industries.” DigitalCommons@ILR, Cornell University, July 2007, https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/key_workplace/309/.

Thompson, Larry D. “Federal Prison Industries: Fair to Business, Vital to Society.” Brookings, The Brookings Institution, 1 Mar. 2004, https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/federal-prison-industries-fair-to-business-vital-to-so ciety/.

Works Consulted

Beckman, Adam L., et al. "New Hepatitis C Drugs are very Costly and Unavailable to Many State Prisoners." Health Affairs, vol. 35, no. 10, 2016, pp. 1893-1901. ProQuest, http://unr.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1832959025?acco untid=452, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2016.0296.

Dwyer, Diane C., and Roger B. McNally. "Public Policy, Prison Industries, and Business: An Equitable Balance for the 1990's." Federal Probation, vol. 57, 1993, pp. 30-36. ProQuest, http://unr.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.unr.idm.oclc.org/docview/5 9628104?accountid=452.

Groh, Michael C. “FAR (8.602) GONE: A PROPOSAL TO MAINTAIN THE BENEFITS OF PRISON WORK PROGRAMS DESPITE THE RESTRUCTURING OF FEDERAL PRISON INDUSTRIES' MANDATORY SOURCE STATUS.” Public Contract Law Journal, vol. 42, no. 2, 2013, pp. 391–410. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24430387.

“Federal Prison Industries: Background, Debate, Legislative History, and Policy Options.” EveryCRSReport.com, Congressional Research Service, 11 May 2016, www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL32380.html.

“Federal Prison Industries, Inc.” FundingUniverse, FundingUniverse, www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/federal-prison-industries-inc-history/.

Flynn, Frank T. “The Federal Government and the Prison-Labor Problem in the States. II. The Prison Industries Reorganization Administration.” Social Service Review, vol. 24, no. 2, 1950, pp. 213–236. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30018480. Keinan, Giora, and Ayala Malach-Pines. “Stress and Burnout Among Prison Personnel: Sources, Outcomes, and Intervention Strategies.” Criminal Justice and Behavior, vol. 34, no. 3, Mar. 2007, pp. 380–398, doi:10.1177/0093854806290007. Martin, Stephen A. “Health Effects of the Federal Bureau of Prisons Tobacco Ban.” BMC Pulmonary Medicine, BioMed Central, 15 Oct. 2012, bmcpulmmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2466-12-64. Nicholas, JB. “How NY Prison 'Slave Labor' Powers A $50 Million Manufacturing Enterprise.” Gothamist, Gothamist, 2 Nov. 2017, gothamist.com/news/how-ny-prison-slave-labor-powers-a-50-million-manufacturing-ente rprise. Pauly, Madison. “A Brief History of America's Corporate-Run Prison Industry.” Mother Jones, Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress, 23 June 2017, www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/history-of-americas-private-prison-industry-time line/. Pehl, Matthew. "Between the Market and the State: The Problem of Prison Labor in the New Deal." Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas, vol. 16 no. 2, 2019, p. 77-97. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/724632.