As many are aware, I have been battling the Department of Justice over their lack of oversight of the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP) since 2003. My complaints to them have been that the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) outsourced all oversight and Technical Assistance, including policy decisions, to the National Correctional Industries Association (NCIA), that is made up of all the prison industries participating in the program. Since 1995 the NCIA has been performing these services to the DOJ through a grant. This relationship between the NCIA, the BJA and the prison industries and their suppliers and retail sellers of prison made products creates a serious impropriety. Overseeing yourself has never worked out for others, and this is simply an example of a good program run poorly and corruptly.
In 2009 I managed to get the BJA to conduct a complete investigation into the Florida Prison Industries run by Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises (PRIDE Enterprises). I complained that:
1) PRIDE was diverting nearly a million dollars a year of taxpayer money back to themselves to offset their costs of operating the PIECP program ( as has the Minnesota prison industries to the tune of $1.3 million a year);
2) that PIECP called for inmate workers to be paid "prevailing wages" for their labor, but the NCIA had authorized PRIDE and all other industries to instead pay inmates either state or federal minimum wages;
3) that PRIDE had started new industries involving shipping prisoner made goods across state lines authorized by PIECP, but they had not certified the new industries as a PIECP operation, allowing them to get away with paying between $.20 and $.50 per hour in wages instead of even minimum wages. This alone provided PRIDE with a serious advantage over private sector employees;
4) using PIECP PRIDE had partnered with private companies to use inmate labor to manufacture their products, later stealing the entire business out from under the PIECP partner company, seizing all materials, equipment and proprietary formulas and recipes owned by those companies, and;
5) violation of 18 USC 1761(C) calls for a $50,000.00 fine per incident and/or two years in federal prison upon conviction. The NCIA nor the BJA turns information as to violations of the law over to the DOJ's Criminal Division, instead "working with the violator" to bring them into compliance.
The NCIA provides this information about their involvement in PIECP upon their site:
"The National Correctional Industries Association (NCIA), the professional organization for prison industry employees, provides training and technical assistance for this program. Under a grant from BJA, the NCIA staff of volunteer correctional industry professionals assess program participants for compliance with program requirements and provide onsite and telephone technical assistance to programs that are not in compliance. NCIA provides additional technical assistance by:
• Responding to specific requests for substantive help from participating jurisdictions
• Providing program information to government agencies, private-sector companies, journalists, professional business and labor organizations, and others interested in the program
• Offering periodic training to program participants
• Helping to shape program policy through development of program guidelines, quarterly program data summaries, and other documents in response to program needs
The PIE Certification Program has two primary objectives:
• Generate products and services that enable prisoners to make a contribution to society, help offset the cost of their incarceration, compensate crime victims, and support their families
• Reduce prison idleness, increase inmate job skills, and improve the prospects for successful inmate tranition to the community on release"
Though the NCIA is supposed to enforce the payment of prevailing wage requirement to the inmates working in this program, here is the NCIA "Resolution" regarding wages paid to inmate workers taken from their website:
"National Correctional Industries Association
Resolution on the Fair Labor Standards Act
WHEREAS, correctional industries and institutional work represent critical activities yielding social, economic and management benefits for the corrections agency, the inmate and the public at large;
WHEREAS, correctional industries and institutional work programs reduce idleness in institutions that are, on average, more than 130 percent of capacity;
WHEREAS, correctional industries are programs designed to train and employ as many inmates as possible, and, as such, they carry additional financial burden not found in the private sector; yet, at the same time, they must be financially self-supporting;
WHEREAS, inmates are not employees who should enjoy full benefits offered by an employer to an employee;
WHEREAS, correctional industries and institutional work programs cannot absorb the financial burden of paying minimum wage and continue to operate as they exist;
WHEREAS, the consequences of designating inmates as employees will result in the imposition of an unnecessary tax burden;
WHEREAS, it is important that it be made clear that Congress did not intend inmates to be considered employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act; and
WHEREAS, it is essential to terminate the numerous and costly lawsuits filed by inmates in courts around the nation;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the National Correctional Industries Association hereby expresses its support for federal legislation which seeks to clarify that inmates are not employees and are not entitled to minimum wage by specifically excluding prison and jail inmates."
And here is their "
Resolution" on Work in Prisons:
"National Correctional Industries Association Resolution to Establish a Policy on Principal Association with Work in Prisons
WHEREAS, there is a movement in some jurisdictions to use work as a form of punishment, and;
WHEREAS, research clearly indicates that work programs, when properly managed to community standards and where inmate workers are free to choose to work and enjoy benefits from such work as some form of enumeration, contributes to public safety by reducing re-incarceration, and;
WHEREAS, there is evidence that punishment not only does not result in reduced recidivism but may in fact increase affecting behavior;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT, the National Correctional Industries Association adopt as policy, that work in prison should always and everywhere dignify the offenders involved in it by ensuring that workers:
1. are treated with respect by their supervisors;
2. are encouraged to learn through the performance of their functions, skills which will help them secure and maintain employment when released;
3. are subject to the same protections in terms of work health and safety and environmental safeguards of workers in similar circumstances, and, to the extent that the prison environment permits; and
4. receive, in some form or another, compensation for their effort;
AND BE IT RESOLVED THAT, the National Correctional Industries Association submit this resolution in a modified form for the approval of the Board of Governors of the American Correctional Association, as the policy of the ACA.
Adopted by the National Correctional Industries Association, January 26, 1997, Indianapolis, Indiana."
As you can see from these two resolutions, the inmate is considered chattel to be paid the least amount possible for his/her labor. The NCIA as a representative of the DOJ under the grant, does not want inmates considered employees when working under PIECP nor do they want them paid minimum wage - let alone prevailing wage. Also they resolved that inmates "receive, in some form or another, compensation for their effort", and this was submitted to the American Correctional Association (ACA).
When the investigation I'd requested was concluded in December 2010, it revealed numerous violations of PIECP by PRIDE. The NCIA claimed that these violations were not ongoing, rather a random non-compliance and that they had worked with PRIDE to bring them into compliance - as they had done numerous times in the past. However, as soon as the report was sent on to the BJA, that agency issued a new "Back Wage Policy" effective immediately. If you read this, take notice that it places the burden of paying back wages upon the state agency that holds the PIECP certificate, NOT THE PRIVATE CORPORATION OR COMPANY actually using this labor. In this manner the state will have to pay out the back wages, not the actual company or corporation that reaped the profits. More unnecessary costs passed on to state taxpayers.
When I received a copy of the final report, I immediately contacted the BJA and questioned if they intended to continue to issue the federal grant to the NCIA and use them for reviews and policy determinations. I questioned them on this, as it was obvious the NCIA was biased and allowing continued non-compliance which steals jobs from the private sector and disadvantages those companies they compete with upon private markets. I did not receive an answer to this question...until today when I received notice from the DOJ that they were accepting applications for the grant to oversee the PIECP program! The first major crack in the armor surrounding exploitation of prisoners for profit. The fact that the DOJ is now looking for someone - or organization - to take the place of the NCIA is gratifying and indicative that I've embarrassed them into severing the government's relationship with the corruptly run NCIA.
This can be seen as a huge victory in ripping prisoner labor from the hands of corporations and companies that have been granted unlimited access to these men and women as laborers to increase their profits - in jobs that used to belong to civilian workers. Though this is a federal program that operates at the state level, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has never objected to this "government interference" in state operations - as they have against every other federal program. Instead, they looked for ways to expand PIECP and make prison industries available to their corporate members and other companies.
From 2001 through the present, ALEC has actively pursued involvement in PIECP, establishing their Prison Industries Act. As I wrote previously, Texas State Rep. Ray Allen (R) was the ALEC Chairman of the Public Safety Task Force (then called Criminal Justice). In 2001 Allen pushed PIECP with ALEC:
Task Force Meeting (2001 States and Nation Policy Summit)
Washington, DC December 15, 2001
The task force met in conjunction with the 2001 States and Nation Policy Summit. In addition to hearing reports from several subcommittees, task force members heard presentations from Deputy Assistant Attorney General Cheri Nolan on the U.S. Department of Justice's efforts to create offender reentry programs to deal with the large number of serious, violent offenders who will be returning to communities in the next several years; and from Texas state Representative Ray Allen on Prison Industry Enhancement programs that allow inmates to work for private businesses in order to pay for a large part of their incarceration costs.
and continued to push exploiting PIECP through 2003:
Task Force Meeting (2003 Spring Task Force Summit)
Las Vegas, NV, March 29, 2003
The Criminal Justice Task Force passed model legislation entitled Repeated
Felony Theft From a Store and made amendments to an existing model bill, the Animal and Ecological Terrorist Act.
The Subcommittee on Private Prisons will continue work on the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program Act and model legislation relating to the privatization of prisons and correctional services with the intent to present and discuss the final drafts of each at the next task force meeting. Legislation regarding online theft is also being held for further study, to be offered at the next meeting.
and again in 2004:
Task Force Meeting (2004 Annual Meeting)
Seattle, WA July 29, 2004
The Criminal Justice Task Force held a very productive and informative meeting in Seattle. Members unanimously passed an ALEC model bill relating to Targeted Contracting for Certain Correctional Facilities and Services and a Resolution in Support of the USA PATRIOT Act, and amended our model Prison Industries Act. We were pleased to have a regional representative from CrimeTrax speak on the latest technology in GPS offender tracking systems designed to assist law enforcers.
What most were/are unaware of is that Rep. Allen was not only the ALEC Public Safety Chairman, Chaired the sub-committee on privatizing prisons, sponsored Texas' Prison Industries Act in 1997 based upon ALEC's Prison Industry Act...
he was also a lobbyist at the same time, for the NCIA! In fact his lobbying for the NCIA, resulted in his resignation from the Texas House in 2006 and he immediately signed on as a lobbyist with Geo Group.
another company deeply involved in prison privatization and industries.
ALEC, the NCIA, ACA and individual legislators such as Ray Allen have been involved in one hell of a long time with prison industries, PIECP and privatization. Maybe with this call for applications from the DOJ, that kind of cozy relationships will end. One can only hope!
I put this out tonight so others with possibly the time or energy to go after this $225,000.00 grant to oversee this important program will be interested in applying. With real oversight, maybe we can get some of our jobs back and take away ALEC and the likes of Charles and David Koch's "Cash cow".