Fri May 9, 2008 5:14 am (PDT)
http://federaltimes .com/index. php?S=3515757
Federal prison industries program expects to lose millions in sales
By ELISE CASTELLI
May 08, 2008
The federal program that sells office furniture and other products
made from prison labor expects to lose millions of dollars in sales
because of a new law, officials told a House committee Tuesday.
Federal Prison Industries (FPI), known by the brand name Unicor, has
long been a mandatory source for federal purchases, but the 2008
Defense Authorization Act requires the Defense Department to put out for bid orders it previously would have placed with FPI.
In areas where Defense buys more than 5 percent of goods or services from FPI, it now must compare what FPI sells to what the private sector sells. If FPI doesn’t offer the best quality, price and
delivery time, Defense is required to open the purchase to a
competition between FPI and the private sector.
As a result of these competition rules, FPI could lose at least $144
million in sales and 3,250 inmate jobs, Harley Lappin, director of
the Bureau of Prisons, told the House Judiciary Committee on May 6.
FPI took in about $850 million in 2007 and employed 23,000 inmates.
FPI is self-funding and without enough revenue, inmates will not
have jobs to keep them busy, Lappin said. The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents