Recidivism is bad. Rehabilitation is good. A civilized society strives, at least in principle, to offer people who have been incarcerated an opportunity to rebuild their lives and return to society as productive citizens. That is, or at least once was, the driving force behind establishing a wide variety of educational and jobs programs in prisons. Industries inside the nation's prisons have become a nearly $2 billion business, says Rich Cholodofsky in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
At the federal level alone, Federal Prison Industries Inc. (FPI) employs almost 20,000 inmates in 102 "factories with fences," a term coined by the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger. FPI is a wholly-owned government corporation established by Congress on June 23, 1934. It manufactures clothing and other textile products, electrical and electronic components, vehicle components, office and dormitory furniture, traffic and safety signage, prescription and nonprescription eyeware, toner cartridges and the "traditional" license plates. FPI also sells services such as fleet management, call center and help desk support, and recycling. Net sales for fiscal year 2004 were $803 million, almost half the total for prison industries in the United States.