TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — On the outside, Unicor, with its big oaks and magnolia trees, looks like it could be part of a landscaped industrial park. Step a little closer and it's clear the apparel shop lies in the middle of a medium-security federal prison in east Alabama.

The factory and those like it that employ convicted felons are at the heart of a simmering debate about whether prisons should be siphoning away jobs — at much lower wages — that could be filled by those who need them during the nation's toughest period of unemployment in decades.

Congressional Republicans, a handful of Democrats and private-industry critics want to clamp down on Unicor — the trade name of Federal Prison Industries.

Almost 13,000 inmates working in federal lockups around the country for a few dollars a day make everything from military uniforms to office furniture to electrical parts that are sold exclusively to federal agencies. With annual revenues that reached $900 million last year, Unicor is the federal government's 36th-largest vendor.

Corrections officials say the program teaches prisoners invaluable job skills and personal discipline that help cut down on their return to prison. Inmates who work in the program are 24 percent less likely to commit more crimes than other prisoners after being released, they say.
But Misti Keeton's eyes welled with tears at the thought of losing her job to a convict. She sews military apparel in the west Alabama town of Fayette at American Power Source. The company is laying off about 50 workers at her plant and another one in Columbus, Miss., after losing a contract to make Air Force exercise garb to Unicor.

"I'm terrified," Keeton said as she fed camouflage cloth through a machine with one hand and wiped away tears with the other. "I've got two teenagers at home. I don't know what I'm supposed to say to them if I lose this job. I don't know what I'm supposed to feed them."

Critics of the program say Unicor undercuts private companies because of lower operating costs and laws that require federal agencies to use inmate-produced products when able.
Federal agencies are now required to purchase items when possible from Unicor. However, Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., is the primary sponsor of legislation to change that.

Among other things, the proposal that has drawn bipartisan support would subject prison factories to direct competition with private business by removing a requirement that makes Unicor the "mandatory source" for some products for government agencies.
But with Unicor plants at 66 prisons nationwide, critics say prisoners are doing work that law-abiding citizens could be performing. The operation isn't nearly as big as just a few years ago because the sluggish economy and tight budgets have reduced government orders, forcing the Bureau of Prisons to close or downsize 43 Unicor factories nationwide.
About 130 miles away on the other side of Alabama, Keeton does the same thing at American Power Source.

Keeton sympathizes with the need to rehabilitate prisoners in a way few others might — she's a former inmate herself. Keeton served time at a state prison on drug-related charges but is now laboring in the same building where her mother worked for 27 years for a different apparel maker.

"The government doesn't want me on welfare," she said. "They don't want me to be a repeat offender. So why are they going to give my job to someone who is not going to come to this plant when they get out of prison?"

Full Story: http://www.wfaa.com/news/national/177157691.html

Citizens of the USA can be so self-centered at times. Where do these complainers get the idea that prisoners shouldn't have jobs? The work that prisoners do is a form of vocational rehabilitation.

Sure they should have jobs.
Making small rocks from big ones.

Sure, that skill would get them what jobs after leaving prison?

No.
They should not be allowed to displace law-abiding, legal cirizens.

That is your opinion, but I see such an opinion as being irrational.

Please Dodo, no Ad Hominems.

I described how I view an opinion, not a person.

How do you think people change there lives or do they want them to retune to prison.

Your said, "That is YOUR opinion". Meaning him.

If a prison wants to run a factory, they need to do one on their property. They also need to bid just like other companies.

Another thing. If a prison is going to run, 'For Profit', State and/or Fed Funding should be pulled.

They are triple dipping.

Answer to how else will they stay out of prison. Work their ***** off growing their own food, tending and processing their own animals and making prison life so fkin' unbearable, they'll never want to go back.

Me and a whole lots of others can't even afford the luxuries they have.

DD, more attacks on my personal rationale will be reported, Chit gits fkin' old. I am not the fkin' topic.

I responded to a specific claim:



Those prisoners who work in prison factories aren't displacing anyone.

Keeton sympathizes with the need to rehabilitate prisoners in a way few others might — she's a former inmate herself. Keeton served time at a state prison on drug-related charges but is now laboring in the same building where her mother worked for 27 years for a different apparel maker.

"The government doesn't want me on welfare," she said. "They don't want me to be a repeat offender. So why are they going to give my job to someone who is not going to come to this plant when they get out of prison?"

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I doubt she is the only broad that is getting displaced by convicts that will not only make the company more profits but will also cost the state taxpayers money to have them supervised.

Whether or not the woman is a repeat offender doesn't depend on what someone else in prison is doing.

What I see here is a case of covetousness.

They should make up a case against her and throw her in prison. Then she could keep her job.

The only job that you actually own is the job that you create for yourself.

You claimed no one was being displaced and replaced with inmates.

She is a law abider now and with kids. She and others will be thrown out of work for cheaper labor.

You cool with that?

I see no evidence supporting such a claim.

I agree. I wish there was a statement on how much the inmates would be paid.
In-house jobs pay them a couple dollars a day.

We have jackwads illegals throwing folks out of their jobs and into the streets.

Now, we have privately run prisons wanting to make tax free profit.

Apparently, this issue is one of certain people wanting the jobs that other people currently have.