Exmark
Many of Microsoft's products are packaged and shrink-wrapped by prisoners
at Washington State's Twin Rivers Corrections Center (TRCC), according
to Dan Pens, co-editor of Prison Legal News, and a prisoner at TRCC.
Pens tells Newsbytes that Exmark, a company specializing in product packaging and located in Monroe, Washington, and a subsidiary of Pac Services. Exmark used the services of 90 prisoners at TRCC who packaged 50,000 units of Windows 95 demo disks and direct-mail promotional packets. The inmates also had packaged tens of thousands of units of Microsoft Office, other software, and hundreds of thousands of Microsoft mice.
Mark Murray, corporate public relations manager, says of the report: "At this point there is no Microsoft product for sale that is packaged at the Twin Rivers Correction Center. There may be demo packages that are boxed and shrink-wrapped as part of this program, but not products for commercial sale". He also stated "I am not aware of any Windows 95 product that was packaged at the Twin Rivers Correctional Center." Although Pens claims "Exmark pays its prison workers the minimum wage ($4.90/hr in Washington), but that figure is misleading. After deductions by the prison, prisoners can see a spendable wage of $1.80 to $2.80 per hour, but the law authorizes up to 80 percent of a prisoner's wages to be deducted, meaning they could actually take home less than one dollar an hour. Exmark and other private industries operating in Washington's prisons do not have to provide their prison workers with any benefits such as health insurance workers' compensation, or retirement." Exmark also uses prison labor to package for other companies such as Jansport, Starbucks, US West, and Costco. (Thomas, 1997)
Labor-To-Industry
The town of Lockart, Texas just 30 miles outside of Austin, Texas houses
a private prison operated by Wackenhut and the Corrections Corporation
of America (CCA). The private security firm in recent years has branched
out and is now the second largest private prison operation in the U.S.
In addition, it is the very model of the prison-industrial complex.
Wackenhut, which receives $31 per day per prisoner from the state.
From that money, the warden must provide housing, guards, electricity,
and everything else to run the facility. Whatever is left over is
profit.
Now, however, Wackenhut must convince private employers they will profit from locating in a prison. The Lockhart facility currently houses three private companies: Labor-To-Industry formerly Lockhardt technologies, a subsidiary of USXX in Atlanta (LTI) (circuit board assembly), a subsidiary of Ft. Lauderdale's United Vision Group (eyeglass manufacture) and Chatleff Controls (valves and fittings). Leonard Hill, owner of LTI, is an unassuming man with thinning gray hair. He is exactly the kind of small entrepreneur that prison industries are attracting across the country - not so big he can locate overseas, but not so small as to go belly up in the first months of operation. In addition, in order to attract businesses like his, Wackenhut arranged a sweetheart deal that defense contractors could only dream about.
LTI, which assembles and repairs circuit boards for companies such as IBM, Dell, Compaq, Motorola, and Texas Instruments, got a completely new factory assembly room, built to specifications by prison labor. It pays only $1/year rent and gets tax abatements from the city. The prisoners sit under work lamps, and peer through microscopes and magnifying glasses at circuit board parts. Some solder the parts on a "touch-up line" while others check for missing pieces. Some of the boards go into computers, TV remote controls, "tens units" that use electric shocks to restore heartbeat, and strobe lights for musical presentation. Hill closed his circuit board assembly plant in Austin, laid off 150 workers and moved all the equipment to Lockhart, where he pays prisoners minimum wage, as required by federal law. The prison then takes about 80 percent of inmate wages for room and board, victim restitution, and other fees. Wackenhut argues this work benefits both the prisoners and society. He made a hardheaded business decision to relocate inside the prison because he eventually expects to rake in bigger profits. "Normally when you work in the free world", says Hill, "you have people call in sick, they have car problems, they have family problems. We do not have that here. "Hill says the state pays for workers' compensation and medical care. In addition, he notes, inmates "don't go on vacations". (Erlich, 1995), (Bloomer, K., 1997)
Escod Industries
Escod Industries, a division of Insilco Corporation, a Fortune 500
conglomerate based in Columbus, Ohio operates seven manufacturing plants
in the United States. One is located in South Carolina's Evans Correctional
Facility, a 1,100-bed maximum/ medium security prison. In one year,
they produced $16 million worth of electronic cables that were purchased
by corporations such as IBM and Canadian-based Northern Telecom Corporation.
Northern Telecom also sells the cables manufactured at the Evans facility
to Eastern European counties to upgrade their communications systems to
meet the latest European Economic Community standards.
Top management at Escod was looking closely at alternatives that would make the company more competitive in the electronics market. One of the options that presented to the management team was to build a satellite plant in Mexico to take advantage of the low-cost Maquiladora work force. It was determined that having a domestic feeder plant located near principal customers and staffed with competitive would work better with the company's just-in -time delivery schedule than a plant located some 1,000 miles away in Mexico.
South Carolina correctional officials swayed Escod's decision by offering financial incentives including low-cost space and $250,000 subsidy for equipment purchases.
In 1995 operations were as follows, 10 civilian Escod staff of managers are used to supervise over 250 inmates at the Evans Correctional Facility. The company operated a two-shift operation in the prison: 190 inmates employed on the 7 a.m. - 3p.m. shift and 60 inmates on the 3p.m. - 11p.m. shift. They would like to see a third shift added.
The work force at Escod hand assembles a variety of wire harnesses for electric cables. The inmates unreel color coded wires from large spools, individually laying the out on large sheets of plywood that outline the correct assembly pattern, tie the wires into bundles, and finish them into electronic cables. Inmates perform their jobs using the team concept. Each team has from 5 to 25 workers, depending upon the size, and complexity of the given product. The team is responsible for the entire production process, including setting up all equipment needed to complete the job order.
Escod's plant manager, Bert Christy states "The productivity and quality of this work force is as good as, if not better than, any I have ever seen." This facility received a quality control award from IBM being one of 10 feeder plants to deliver 25,000 cables the computer giant with zero defects.
Christy attributes the inmates' superior work to their high motivation, pointing out: "Any person here who has a strong desire to work because this by far is the best game in town. They want this place to be a success. And so do we."
Christy also maintains that the inmate work force has a higher education and work experience than individuals that are applying for the same jobs at the main plant. Indeed, he believes that many of the inmates are overqualified for the jobs that they hold, which bight be expected to reduce the morale.
The prison workforce is not trouble free. Escod has had problems such as absenteeism and turnover. The company worked closely with prison officials to overcome the issues. Absenteeism created an abundance of overtime the first year. The company reduced the number of unexcused absences and an absentee policy that results in termination after five unexcused absences over a 6-month period.
After 2-years in the operation, the Evans plant has became a vital link in Escod's domestic manufacturing system. IBM managers like the arrangements because it enables them to meet their domestic production requirements. Northern Telecom likes the setup because it meets their just-in-time delivery schedules. It also allows them to avoid a hiring and laying off cycle that would occur in their regular plant. (Sexton, 1995)
California Computer Repair
At the Soledad Correctional Training Facility Omar Sharif Brown a felon
convicted of murder stands carefully replacing parts on a computer keyboard.
Brown reconfigures computers and explains the problems with computer software
crashes. Brown is part of the California Computer refurbishing Program
that has provided 35,500 computers to schools since it was founded in 1994.
These computers were distributed to the schools free of charge through
out the state of California.
While the program has received wide spread praise, the main nonprofit foundation distributing the equipment has stirred controversy. They have been accused of inflating the number of computers and illegally require schools to raise money to pay for the computers.
About 1,00 inmates at prison throughout the state currently work in the field of reconditioning the computers for the program, according to Ray Kirkpatrick the program's northern California coordinator. The program allows the inmates to acquire a set of marketable skills to use after release from prison. An informal poll show that of 42 inmates that completed the program 11 are working in the computer field, and only two have returned to prison. California's prisons have a recidivism rate of 56 percent.
Roger Kolbo, supervisory instructor acknowledges that training sometimes-illiterate
prisoner in the fine points of computer repairs is not an easy task.
Former drug dealer Colin Nelson, for example, had never operated a computer
in his life. "When I first saw a DOS prompt it," he says, "it was
Greek to me. I've crashed my system so many times."
Some prisoners assemble new computers under the auspices of Smart Valley
Inc., a Silicone Valley nonprofit group. In 1996, as part of its
project called PC Day, prisoners assembled 3,000 new computers with parts
donated by various companies. These computers were distributed in
Northern California. (Erlich, 1998)
M-tron
M-tron provides a wide range of products from commercial specifications
at cost- effective prices to the higher, more complex technologies.
M-tron manufactures considerable amounts of the products are sold at the
facility in Yankton, South Dakota. The Yankton operations are registered
to ISO- 9001, the highest of the ISO standards. They have been registered
since July 1, 1993 and were the first U.S.ñbased crystal and oscillator
manufacturer to achieve this high standard. Some of the consumer
that M-tron supplies to are Nortel, Lucent Technologies, AT&T Wireless,
Bay Networks, 3COM, IBM, Intel, Northern Telecom, Digital Switch, and New
Bridge Networks.
In addition, they also offer a variety of products, which they obtain from their strategic partners in the Far East. These strategic partners are limited in number and are only those suppliers with whom we have a long relationship and great deal of history. Although they are not ISO registered for these purchased products, they hope to attain that goal in the near future. In the interim, all products that are purchased from their strategic partners are handled no differently than the components they use in their manufactured products, or the manufactured finished product.
GFS Manufacturing
GFS Manufacturing uses inmates from the state of New Hampshire to make
chokes, devices that conduct electricity in circuit boards and power-supply
units for a variety of products. Such as computers, telephone switching
equipment, medical equipment, and avionics equipment. Some customers
that use the products are Texas Instruments, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard,
and Siemens. (Sullivan, 1997)
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