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Work, Education, and Public Safety:
A Brief History of Federal Prison Industries

by John W. Roberts

Introduction

"No single phase of life within prison walls is more important to the public or to the inmate than efficient industrial operations and the intelligent utilization of the labor of prisoners," stated a Federal Bureau of Prisons report in 1949. This statement is still true today, nearly 50 years later. As long as society relies on incarceration to punish convicted offenders, it will be necessary to maintain vibrant industrial programs to employ prisoners. Safe and effective prison administration would be virtually impossible without prison industries.

Since 1934, Federal Prison Industries, Incorporated-a wholly-owned corporation of the United States Government-has operated factories and employed inmates in America's Federal prisons. Also known as FPI or UNICOR, Federal Prison Industries, Inc., has made an incalculable contribution to law enforcement by contributing to the safety and security of Federal correctional institutions. At the same time, it has produced a wide array of products for use by the U.S. Government and provided tens of thousands of inmates with the vocational training and work experience they needed to become gainfully-employed, law-abiding citizens after release. FPI serves many constituencies-the public, prison staff, other Federal agencies, and even the inmates themselves. It is one of the most successful and cost-effective enterprises of the Federal Government.

Historically, however, industrial and other work programs for prisoners have generated considerable controversy. Organized labor and small business alike have expressed fears that prison-made merchandise constituted unfair competition. And the brutal work programs that appeared in State and county prisons during the l9th century precipitated a national outcry.

FPI was created with such concerns in mind. It was designed to enable inmates to perform meaningful work under humane conditions without posing a significant competitive threat to private industry or free labor. In fact, properly-organized prison industrial programs such as FPI can be justified on several grounds:

1. Safe prison management and better prison discipline through the reduction of idleness.

Idleness in prison is dangerous. It can give rise to boredom and frustrations that can explode in disputes among inmates and in attacks by inmates upon prison staff. Prison industrial activity is, first and foremost, a management tool. It enhances discipline within prison by keeping inmates occupied and by raising their morale. During the 20th century, periods of greatest unrest in prisons throughout the United States have coincided with periods of depression in prison industries.

2. Cost-efficiency.

It is more expensive to operate a prison where the inmates are idle, tense, and disruptive than it is to operate a prison where the inmates are busy and well disciplined. Investments in prison industries can lower expenditures on day-to-day prison operations and decrease the likelihood of having to expend resources to quell disturbances. Moreover, prison industrial programs enable inmates to produce items of value for the Government, such as furniture, electronics, signs, military gear, and so forth. Sale of these products, in turn, generates revenue that can be used to offset expenses that would otherwise have to be met through appropriated funds. FPI staff salaries are funded out of such earnings, and, for many years, FPI revenues were also used to subsidize educational and other programs for inmates.

3. Inmate-job training and rehabilitation.

The primary task of prison is to confine offenders, but a secondary task is to provide inmates with ways to improve themselves during confinement. Prisons cannot magically rehabilitate offenders, but they can provide opportunities for inmates to reform their behavior and rehabilitate themselves. As former Federal Bureau of Prisons Director J. Michael Quinlan has written, "We can't ‘cure' criminal behavior, but we know that some programs work for some inmates some of the time." Prison work programs are among those that can help. The work experience and vocational training they provide can increase ex-offenders' prospects for employment and reduce the likelihood of recidivism.

4. Inmate financial responsibility.

Inmates have families to help support, court-imposed fines to pay, and victims to recompense. The wages they earn through employment in prison labor programs, however meager, can help them meet those obligations. Under the Bureau's Inmate Financial Responsibility Program (IFRP), all inmates who have court recognized financial obligations must use at least 50 percent of their FPI earnings to pay their just debts. Since the program began in 1987, more than $80 million has been collected.

Sanford Bates, the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, once observed that "Prisoners should work because it is economically necessary, socially advisable, and because it represents the most important element in the general attempt to solve the problem of delinquency." In short, if prisons are necessary to protect society, then prison industries are necessary to make those prisons function properly.

In its 60 years of operation, Federal Prison Industries, Inc., has provided meaningful employment for inmates, developed sound educational and vocational training programs for inmates, and helped minimize the economic impact of prison labor on the private sector. As a component of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, its operations are limited to the correctional institutions of the Federal Government. But is has played a strong leadership role throughout the field of corrections and has served as an example to the prison systems of the various States. The history of FPI is a critical chapter in the history of corrections in general, and of prison work programs in particular.