I was just watching the BBC show QI, and they just quoted the following percentages for the amount of US made goods that are in fact made by prisoners:
Even if you consider “made by prisoners” to mean “prisoners were involved in making some of the components” these numbers seem really high.
Additionally modern military helmets seem like very high tech, complex, products that required skilled workers to produce, not exactly what you would want prisoners involved in manufacturing.
http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/05/26/defective-helmet-maker-suspends-production/
Looks like the prison made helmets for the US military weren’t all that effective. RECALL!
It is my understanding that only governments can buy from Unicor, which runs Federal Prison Industries. So it doesn’t surprise me at all that military helmets and furniture for government use comes from prisons, but the statistic on paint doesn’t seem right.
Upon googling, those statistics come from a source called Left Business Daily, but I can’t find the original article. It could be that those statistics apply to the amount of market share that Unicor has for government purchases, not the general US market. (As in, 21 percent of furniture bought by the government comes from Unicor, not that 21 percent of all furniture sold in the US comes from Unicor.)
Making military helmets isn’t rocket science. Take a fiber blanket, cut it to certain sizes, and glue layer upon layer on a mold.
I’m not surprised that those percentages would be that high, although they may be a little misleading.
Here in Texas anyway, most of the furniture used at the state universities and in state agencies is made by Texas Correctional Industries, as were most of the cleaning products used by the custodians for the universities.
I suspect that if most states have policies like that, then a LOT of inmate-made furniture gets made. (and really, why wouldn’t they? It’s about the only way to get sub-minimum wage in the US for things like that.)
For an idea of what Texas prisons make & do, take a look at this link:
Thre is a set of Federal laws, that states that if a prisoner (any prisoner, including state prisoners) makes goods that move in interstate commerce, they must be paid an equivalent wage to a free worker doing the same work. Thus, if a product made by prisoners is moving the general stream of commerce, they are earning a wage comparable to that paid the open market.
However, most products made by prisoners do not move in the open market. The majority of prison labor is “returned to the state” by being utilized directly by the government, often but not always directly by the prison. The familiar example is prisoners who do the metal stamping for license plates or road signs. Making furniture for use in government offices as in bumps’s post, is another example. Prisoners who make products which do not move in interstate commerce, actually have no right to pay at all, unless state law creates a right. They usually make around $1 an hour or less.
Sorry, one more point. When you look at a stat like “93% of paint manufactureed in the US is made by prisoners” it can be very misleading. It strikes me as quite likely that most paint sold in the United States is not manufactured in the United States. (for example, Benjamin Moore brand paint is formulated in New Jersey, but manufactured in Ontario, Canada). So, it might be that only a small percentage of household paint used in the United States is made by prisoners. See what I mean?