The arguments put forth by those exploiting prison labor, consist of two main points: 1). Prison industry provides training to offenders so they are less likely to re-offend upon release and, working in the prison industries, eliminates idleness and reduces violence; 2). Increase the probability that a released offender will be hired and again, not re-offend and thereby reduce recidivism.
These are hollow arguments presented to distract the public from the real purpose of prison industry: profits.
A study on ex-offenders reveals they represent a drag on our economy.Here is a link to an article on this subject.
Another study by the BJS determined:
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS): "In 2008, over 7.3 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at year-end — 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults."
The study and facts presented above may come as a surprise to most and hopefully will serve as a wake-up call to all of us out here worrying about the state of our economy. 1 in 31 Americans have been introduced to prison, jail or probation as of 2008! 1 in 31 of us! Yet we read the facts provided by mainstream media advising that only about 1 in 100 is the figure provided. It's three times worse than they have told us. Granted, probation or jail do not necessarily mean conviction and prison, but they do represent a stigma that attaches to those arrested, jailed and placed on probation. In nearly every arrest the suspect - later defendant - loses his or her job. This can be from the arrest, charge, or amount of time in jail awaiting disposition. Placement on probation often has the same result, in that licensing is no longer allowed for probationers, or companies are hesitant to employ someone on probation for a criminal arrest.
In 2005 there was a Story written, titled: "PRIDE Enterprises: A Twenty-Five Year History (1981-2005)." When reviewing this "History" it is important for us to keep in mind that in February 2005 they were called out by the Governor's IG for corruption and inter-corporate loans, funding and creation of spin-offs. All of their manipulations were designed to take advantage of PIECP and expanding markets in the private sector. Here is the quote (2005) that I want to draw attention to:
4. "To duplicate commercial business enterprise within the prison environment, while not significantly competing with the private sector. PRIDE takes this to mean that it has to operate like a “real” business while not unfairly competing with other businesses in the state. Inasmuch as PRIDE manufactures genuine products for sale to legitimate customers, the corporation accomplishes the first part of this mission every day. But there is much more than just making widgets and selling them. PRIDE must be capable and proficient at simultaneously managing 36 separate and diverse industries. It is operationally difficult to have scores of semi-independent businesses running at the same time – at over twenty different geographic locations. So that PRIDE does not unfairly compete with businesses that offer similar products, the industries are intentionally diversified. This sizable variety causes PRIDE to have a statistically minimal market share of any one segment of commerce. PRIDE, for example, makes boxer shorts, toilet brushes, bookshelves, dish detergent, frozen hamburger patties, work boots, and cardboard boxes. And none of those product lines comes anywhere close to approaching even one tenth of one percent of the total commerce of a similar product manufactured in Florida. PRIDE’s ability to pay lower-than minimum wages is not a significant business advantage. Firstly, the cost of labor is not one of the more significant factors in the value of a manufactured product. (Raw materials and component parts are. Logistics and transportation are. Business services are. Utilities and other overhead are.) Secondly, the higher incidences of material waste, constant work interruptions, the fact that PRIDE’s workforce lacks much formal education or are functionally illiterate, the need for constant retraining because of high turnover, and higher supervisor worker ratios, eats up any savings derived from lower wage levels.
"Sales of PRIDE’s products are generally restricted to governmental, tax-supported entities and to non-profit organizations. The government market, though, is sizeable and comprises more than state agencies. PRIDE’s strategic thrust over the last few years has been to penetrate the county, municipal and educational markets. This effort has been somewhat successful, as PRIDE currently sells 51% of its products to state gencies, a reduction from 67% in 2000. Reliance on state government customers imperils PRIDE’s ability to sustain periods of slow sales. Diversification of PRIDE’s customer base has become a top priority objective. The renewed emphasis will be for PRIDE to break into the public educational markets, including both K-12 and the colleges and universities. Another emphasis will be to better cover the numerous county and city governments. Other local governmental or tax-supported entities include museums, libraries, airports, convention centers, water management districts, emergency medical and fire service agencies, etc."
All of that is double speak, knowing as we do their pursuit of profits through PIECP (allows sales in private markets and against pvt. sector competitors). The fact that they continue to make the public believe that they are diversified to limit competition and "PRIDE’s products are generally restricted to governmental, tax-supported entities and to non-profit organizations" is meant as disinformation. Yes, they sell to state agencies, departments and have expanded into public education markets. But they strive for as much PIECP orders as possible because of the profits - but no mention of it in the section quoted above.
Additionally, PRIDE got slapped hard by the Florida Governor's IG office in 2004-2005. Unsecured loans, no repayment requirement or schedule on those loans, formation of spin-off corporations, money laundering, commingling of for-profit and non-profit funds and other less important violations were what the IG found. The scandal did cause the resignation of all the top brass at PRIDE and their Board of Directors - but there were no "criminal" investigations into their activities. In response PRIDE felt secure in addressing the scandal in one brief paragraph of their 25 year history:
"A controversy surrounding the relationship between PRIDE and its service provider, Industries Training Corporation (ITC), ultimately lead to the resignations of the Chief Executive Officer and President, Pam Davis, and the Chief Financial Officer. Further, PRIDE ended its relationship with its former service provider."
Makes it sound like the President and CEO were one and the same and one other executive resigned, the CFO. Not so. John Bruells was the President, Pam Davis the CEO and besides them, one other top executive was forced to resign along with the CFO. Minor point, but shows how articles can be "cleaned-up" to misinform. This kind of disinformation has been disseminated by all of the prison industries and their corporate partners for years now. It is done to try and keep us in the dark about their operations and money involved. Speaking of deliberate disinformation - out of the same camp...
Here are some more startling facts and figures that represent just how much we've been lied to by proponents of state run prison industries and the Federal Prison Industries (FPI).
Currently the FPI has approximately 26,000 inmates working in their industries as of January 2010. PIECP statistics reflect that as of the close of the 2nd Quarter, 2010 there were just under 5,000 inmates working in the program - nationwide (these figures are skewed somewhat as PI's work some inmates under PIECP to make products that are sold within the state of mfg., and this work and sales are not figured in with normal PIECP projects and sales - though the work could not be performed, or the sales made in the absence of PIECP). In addition, non-PIECP inmates assigned to prison industry work in the various prison industries nationwide I estimate to be approximately 52,000.
So cumulatively, there are approximately 78,000 prisoners working in prison industries in the U.S. Sales last year for all prison industries totalled more than $2 billion (gross). FPI figures for 2007 show a gross sales figure of $765,000,000.00 in sales on their own. PIECP does not report industry sales (find that curious? Me too) but they do report the total amount of wages paid to inmates from 1979 through 2nd quarter 2010 as: $537,592,584. PRIDE's annual report for 2009 reports gross sales as $74,887,872.00
With the older 2007 FPI sales figure combined with PRIDE's 2010 figure one can see between the two alone, they amount to $800,000,000.00 in total sales made from prison industry sales. Considering that there are 42 other PIECP prison industry participants and many more prison industries not operating under PIECP this figure by two participants demonstrates the vast amount of money changing hands through prison industries.
Now we've established there are approximately 78 thousand inmates employed in some form of prison industry. We currently have approximately 2.3 million individuals in prison. From this we can easily see that less than 3% of all offenders are involved in one form or another in all of our prison industries. If the "goal" of prison industry is to train offenders to enable them to become better able to be employed upon release, they aren't reaching very many of the 2.3 million people incarcerated. 97% of those in prison will serve their sentences and return to their communities without the lauded training and assistance prison industry operators and proponents say they're providing.
This same argument goes for reducing idleness and violence in prison. With only about 3% of each institution's population involved in prison industry, how much of the prison violence is actually reduced? Idleness? Not nearly enough. Again even these statistics are skewed: better educated and behaved inmates are those chosen to work in the industries. They are not the typical inmates causing trouble through idleness. So the stated purposes of using inmates in prison industry to reduce recidivism, idleness and violence within prisons is merely a facade offered up to justify the use of inmates for profit.
If we conservatively estimate the total gross sales of all prison industries - state and federal - at $2.3 billion annually and divide that figure by the number of estimated inmates working in state, federal of PIECP operations (78,000) we find that each inmate represents approximately $29,700.00 in value to their respective industry.
Since the figure for cost of incarceration falls in that same general range (between $25,000. and $42,000 per inmate annually depending on state and facility) we can see that the total value of each prison industry worker represents approximately $60,000 in a combination of taxpayer money and product sales, respectively. This figure clearly outlines the real purpose behind prison industries and why inmates are being worked by the industries and their corporate partners. PROFITS!
"Talking points," "mission statements" and "mission goals" are all key phrases used by prison industry operators and their corporate backers and partners to justify to us the "social issues" they are helping us with through prison privatization and prison industries. Again, these phrases are used to distract us from their real purpose in involvement in both and many articles fill us with completely false information:
Using outdated equipment to train inmate workers in preparation for release and employment in the private sector is a ridiculous effort destined to failure. Most industry operations today use advanced technology in manufacturing. Expecting an inmate trained on 30-40 year old equipment to exit prison and be able to go right to work is preposterous. They would have to be completely retrained on contemporary equipment and in current technologies if employed, In today's markets many employers have neither the time nor desire to take on that kind of training. They need workers then - not after a year or more of training.
So the "goals" stated by prison industry and corporations partnered with them have been debunked. The actual reason for working these men and women is cheap labor with no benefits, insurance or other typical programs that employees cost employers. Not enough inmates are involved in prison industry training to justify claims of reductions in violence and idleness in prisons. These programs all contribute to our loss of private sector jobs because of their very existence and a way provided for participation by large corporations. They can terminate private sector employees and make larger profits through industry participation and do so more and more as our economy continues to wobble on a thin wire.
How long until the wire snaps and drops us all into an even worse recession or full blown depression? At the rate we're going and in the direction we're being taken, it won't be long. This is why this issue is so important to us as a society of workers. If we continue to sit back and take no action, this series shows where we're headed and at whose hands.
Jobs cannot recover with insourcing and outsourcing of our jobs occurring every day. For each job the government manages to create, it and a second one are leaving the job market.
Through PIECP the NCIA serves as the tip of the pyramid in this scenario. Much of the money taken in finds it's way there. NCIA efforts of increasing their membership to include FPI and ACA permanent seats upon their board is designed to increase membership dues and acquire even more influence over prison industries.
Prison industry personnel, such as Brian Connett, work their way from holding a position in prison industry operations in a single state prison industry, to membership in the NCIA and a new position with another industry within PIECP. They then work their way up from general member, to board member and finally a VP position within the NCIA. Along the road traveled, they accumulate experience, knowledge and many contacts within prison industry operations. Through practiced ignoring of PIECP violations during NCIA inspections, they garner "friends" among other state prison authorities that adds individual influence to their resumes. They have acquired such influence and wealth by participating in PIECP and prison industries, they hate to leave when their state job results in promotion away from PI operations.
There is a reason why a person promoted to Director over an entire prison system is denied membership within the NCIA - they would have the ability to promote the objectives and goals of the NCIA from their position at the top of the prison system operation. They cannot serve because this would present an impropriety. Yet, Thaler says Texas' prison industries will still fall under his command, and he'll stay in touch on NCIA issues. Impropriety be damned - all ahead, full steam toward more profits and influence...