THE BASICS -- Washington state has made a concerted, visible effort to expand the "partnership" between the state prison system and private industry.
As of 1996, our state is second to only California in the number of inmate hours worked in private-sector jobs. And a 1993 law mandates increasing the number of prison inmates employed in prison industries by at least 200 to 300 a year until the year 2000.
Among the goals of this program is to "offer inmates vocational opportunities for legitimate means of livelihood upon their release from custody" and to "reduce the tax burden of corrections through production of goods and services for sale and use."
Although state law says prison industries should not compete with free-market work now performed in the state, there are instances where exactly that is happening. There are also examples of firms closing up shop and laying off employees to move behind prison bars.
WHERE LABOR STANDS -- Organized labor believes prisoners should work and prison work programs are an important part of the correctional process. But we also strongly believe that prison labor should not be done at the expense of law-abiding workers and the firms that employ them in our state.
Clearly, our present law is not stopping that from happening.
Companies now must "prove" jobs won't be displaced in order to move behind prison walls. But most of these firms are "start-ups" or expansions of existing businesses. In one case, a Redmond firm employing 40 workers joined the prison industries program, and laid off their workers, by simply claiming they would have closed up shop if they hadn't been accepted.
Granted, it can be very difficult for the Correctional Industries Board of Directors (which determines whether to accept firms into the program) to assess the impact its decisions may have on other businesses and workers. But one thing is clear, workers displaced by prison labor deserve some relief.
One idea would be a Prison Adjustment Assistance Act (similar to the NAFTA Trade Act program) that would offer extended unemployment benefits and training opportunities to workers who can show they were displaced by prison labor.
And while we're at it, since our tax dollars are subsidizing these businesses with free rent, cheap labor and health insurance for their workers, how about requiring these companies to publicly disclose what brand names are being produced behind bars so we can decide for ourselves whether we want to buy products "Made in Prison"?
RECENT LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
1985 -- HB 594 required the State of Washington and its agencies to purchase goods and services from the Dept. of Corrections' Prison Industries whenever possible. Passed, became law.
1993 -- HB 2004 mandated training of prisoners to do asbestos removal so they could perform work normally contracted to private firms. Passed House, died in Senate committee.
1993 -- SB 5451 called for steady increases in the number of inmates who participate in prison industries and expanded the Prison Industries Board of Directors to include labor representatives. Passed, signed into law.
-- In 1995, the prison system added 416 jobs, easily exceeding the 200-job increase required by the Legislature.
-- The Prison Industries Reform Alliance, a national organization representing business and labor, was formed to redirect prison industries away from work competing with private sector. It has identified work that would otherwise be too labor-intensive to be profitable, including: sorting plastics and trash for recycling; "de-manufacturing" or tearing down things like mattresses, fractional motors and old tires for raw material; and certain disaster relief assistance work.
-- One often-overlooked aspect of this issue is other countries' perception of our trade-dependent state and our country as users of prison labor. Since the '30s, the U.S. has banned the importing of prison-made goods, but we freely export them.
| Home | Next | Labor Index |