Did a prisoner repair your government computer? Correctional Industries program said to reduce recidivism

The Houston Chronicle yesterday had a nice little article about TDCJ's Texas Correctional Industries program training inmates to perform computer repair, which unlike picking cotton or working on a hoe squad actually teach prisoners a skill that's marketable when they get out. The story opened thusly:

With stacks of broken computers towering toward the ceiling and intense white-clad technicians frowning over workbenches filled with the machines' electronic guts, this could be any high-tech repair shop in America. Or so you may think until rolls of concertina wire bristling from the walls remind you of where you are.

Welcome to Huntsville's Wynne Unit, home of one of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's two computer repair labs, where each month inmate workers fix or discard up to 250,000 pounds of malfunctioning equipment.

In Texas, a state whose prison work programs are best known for agriculture and license plates, the computer shops represent the cutting edge of a factory system that produces everything from street signs to mattresses for state college dorms and soap for scrubbing jailhouse floors.

Here's a summary of more common types of TCI labor:

Textile operations remain a big part of prison jobs today. Inmates grow and harvest cotton, then spin and weave it into fabric for use in prison clothing, which they sew. Prisoners each month make 110,000 towels, 120,000 pairs of socks, 85,000 shirts and pants, and 75,000 pairs of underwear.

Prison officials say the cost of inmate clothing purchased through a vendor is $7 to $10; making the same clothing in-house costs about $5.

Workers also refurbish public school buses, re-tread tires, produce signs, banners and departmental awards, build furniture, craft shoes and, of course, make license plates

In some cases, writes reporter Allan Turner, "the most valuable lessons taught are simply how to responsibly keep a job. As many as 40 percent of those inmates entering the TCI program have no work experience."

Participants in TCI work have lower recidivism rates, reports the Chron: "Overall in the 156,000-inmate system, he said, up to 24 percent of those released from prison return within three years. Among the inmate workers who stay on the job the longest, recidivism drops to 11 percent."

Fewer GEDs, prison industry jobs thanks to TDCJ budget cuts

Coupla news items caught my eye related to budget cuts at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. First, reports Mike Ward at the Austin Statesman, six prison industry factories including a soap factory formerly at the Central Unit in Sugar Land have been closed because of budget cutbacks. Wrote Ward:

The closures are part of a national trend, officials say, as government agencies that run prison industry programs experience budget cuts and government agencies that buy prison-made goods scale back their purchases, also to cope with tighter state budgets.

"The question is how do you keep convicts busy if the plant closes," said Tony Fabelo, an Austin-based criminal justice statistician who tracks criminal justice trends.

"This has implications for prison management, beyond just the closing of a plant here and there."

In Texas, prison officials have always prided themselves on the state's robust prison-industry program. It is among the nation's largest, where convicts make everything ranging from furniture, highway signs and soap to garments, license plates and shoes at 41 plants. But now some officials worry that increasing numbers of idled convicts could lead to new disciplinary and security problems inside Texas' sprawling system of 111 state prisons.

The other closures:

In Beaumont, a metal products plant at the Stiles Unit was shuttered earlier this year and its operations were consolidated with similar plants at the Coffield Unit near Tennessee Colony and the Powledge Unit near Palestine.

A garment plant at the Jester 3 Unit in Richmond was consolidated with a plant at the Eastham Unit north of Huntsville. A shoe plant closed at the Jordan Unit near Pampa had its lines moved to a plant at the Clements Unit in Amarillo that makes blankets.

A wood and furniture plant at the Ellis Unit outside Huntsville was moved to the Lewis Unit in Woodville. And a plant that manufactures stainless-steel fixtures at the Boyd Unit in Teague has been closed and consolidated with a metal plant at the Luther Unit outside Navasota.

Meanwhile, the Huntsville Item has a story on recent budget cuts at TDCJ's Windham School District which informs us that:

As of Thursday, Windham had to eliminate 271 full-time employees, including 157 teachers in addition to adminstrative and support staff. WSD also enforced salary reductions across the board in order to reduce its budget by $17.8 million, or 27 percent, per year of the biennium.

It was another tough blow to the residents of Huntsville and the surounding communities. Another 40 jobs were lost in the area after the Texas Department of Criminal Justice went through a round of layoffs a few months ago.

Windham had to cut jobs at the Eastham, Ellis, Estelle, Goree, Huntsville and Wynne units as the agency’s budgeted figures for 2012 under the regular programs were substantially lower than the estimated expenses for the fiscal year 2011, which led to a reduction in funding. ...

As a result of the teaching cuts, Windham, which provides academic, career and technology training for offenders to help combat recidivism, has also had to eliminate and reduce educational programs, including General Educational Development (GED). Each teaching position was determined to serve 107 students per year, meaning more than 16,700 offenders will be left out of the classrooms in 2012.

GED classes are no longer being offered at the Glossbrenner, Halbert, Havins, Johnston, LeBlance and Sayle substance abuse facilities and at the Duncan Unit. The Central Unit in Sugar Land was recently closed down completely.

“Despite substantial budget reductions, WSD remains committed to providing the best possible programming with allocated funding,” Kiser said.

The GED, as well as other programs, were signifigantly reduced at 19 other units, including Eastham, Goree, Ellis, Byrd and Huntsville. According to WSD’s annual performance report for 2009-10, approximately 77,500 inmates received educational services and 12,464 of the offenders released in 2010 attained a GED and took college classes while incarerated in TDCJ.

Offenders at the units that no longer offer GED courses have limited options as to continuing their education.

Prisoner made furniture as campaign swag?

Somehow I'd missed the report from Patti Hart that State Rep. Debbie Riddle used prisoner-made furniture as campaign swag in a recent fundraiser. Reported Hart in the Houston Chronicle August 22

In her invitation, Riddle includes several "participation" levels: $1,000, $3,000, $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 and $20,000.

Each level of payment is awarded a corresponding gift, including the Capitol furniture produced by Texas prisoners. A color brochure with photographs of each gift was thoughtfully folded into the "Leadership Summit" invitation.

"Please note the donor gift items are exclusive and cannot be purchased on the open market," Riddle advises.

"The descriptions seem inadequate for most of these items, and you will find an enclosure with photographs to show their beauty."

Besides the desks and chairs from the House chamber, the brochure offers a hand-tooled leather duffle bag, a hand-tooled leather-top coffee table and matching chair set, a Lone Star flag cutting board, a hand-carved Capitol bench and a hand-tooled leather rifle case. Oh, and a really special carved rocking horse with a hand-tooled saddle. (That'll run you three grand.) Riddle isn't exaggerating; they're all stunning.

[Hart] called Riddle to ask if she thought her party swag might be considered just a little over the top, especially since she is allowed to purchase the items by virtue of her elected office. Isn't that a tiny bit like using your office to raise campaign funds?

"It's no different than 'if you donate this or donate that you get a T-shirt and a coffee mug,' " she told me. "We can purchase these items from the prison system as gifts. We can buy them, but we cannot sell them. I am not selling these any more than I am selling a T-shirt (given to a donor.)"

Remarkable. Asked about his view of the practice, House Administration Committee Chair said understatedly, "I've never heard of that before. I wouldn't do it." Election law attorney Buck Wood couldn't name a specific statute the practice violates, but said that generally, "You can't use the prison system as a manufacturer to attract campaign dollars." Or maybe it's just hat nobody ever thought to do so before, at least quite so explicitly. Concluded Hart:

Riddle told me she could have had the items made elsewhere, but "this is my way of helping those guys behind bars earn some money. There are some really fine craftsmen that have made bad decisions."

Too bad that Texas legislators have exclusive access to these "really fine craftsmen." That Lone Star flag cutting board really caught my eye.

It's true the prisoner-made furniture you see everywhere at the capitol is first-rate work, but you shouldn't have to donate to Debbie Riddle's campaign to purchase it independently. If this isn't already illegal, or potentially even if it is, I'd expect using prisoner-made furniture as campaign swag to be among the raft of new crimes created by the Texas Lege in 2013.

False claim of unfair competition could limit in-prison work programs

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has very few reentry programs, but one of its more successful ones is under fire at Thursday's House Corrections Committee meeting in the form of HB 1914 by committee chairman Jim McReynolds (with a companion bill in the Senate filed by Sen. Robert Nichols), aimed at further eliminating most prison industries programs on the false assumption that they take jobs away from people in the free world.

The Prison Industry Enhancement Certification or PIE program was created 15 years ago - designed to give inmates work skills and provide inexpensive labor to industry participants. PIE has 200-300 working inmates at any given time - only five companies participate currently.

Among other things, HB 1914 would require TDCJ to reject prison industries contracts "if the board determines that the contract has negatively affected or would negatively affect any employer in this state." That's so broad, it's inevitable somebody will come forward to complain. I'm told by those involved with prison industry programs that, if this bill passes, they fear it will soon eliminate PIE programs entirely.

By all accounts, PIE has a pretty good track record as reentry programs go - recidivism is low, inmates help pay for their incarceration, pay into the Crime Victims Fund, and contribute to supporting their families in the free world. PIE graduates frequently are employed upon release by their in-prison employer, helping overcome the biggest barrier to success for ex-prisoners: finding a job.

But Chairman McReynolds and state Sen. Robert Nichols are seeking restrictions that would likely choke off PIE as it currently exists. Why, you might ask?

Last year, a company called Lufkin Trailer (in McReynolds' and Nichols' districts) cried foul claiming that a PIE-based competitor, Direct Trailer, assumed an unfair advantage because they used inmate labor and paid minimal rent for their in-prison manufacturing facility. Sen. Nichols rode to their defense, convincing TDCJ to end Direct Trailer's contract. (Even so, with this supposedly unfair competition gone, Lufkin Industries continues to lay off more employees.)

The idea that in-prison manufacturers have some great advantage is a myth. For starters, Lufkin Trailer's 2008 10-K form filed with the SEC notes that "any labor disruption could have a significant impact on Trailer’s ability to maintain production levels," however think about the labor disruptions in prisons, where lockdowns, disciplinary actions, and any number of other problems free world employers never have to deal with may significantly impact labor availability.

Further, PIE programs must comply with byzantine prison rules that simply dont' affect free-world industries - for example, elaborate systems for counting and accounting for tools at the beginning and end of each shift to keep inmates from smuggling weapons or contraband.

For that matter, all existing PIE programs are relatively small endeavors that are unlikely to directly affect other Texas' businesses. Tellingly, in their official 2008 10-K statement, Lufkin Industries announced its decision to close Lufkin Trailer but didn't once mention competition from in-prison labor as a significant factor. Instead, the company blamed

reduced activity in the home and road construction markets as well as reduced profitability from higher fuel prices. In 2007, industry order rates and backlog for flatbed trailers decreased over 40% and for dump trailers over 25% compared to 2006 levels. In the fourth quarter of 2007, industry order rates and backlog for flatbed and dump trailers decreased almost 50% compared to the fourth quarter of 2006. Due to these market conditions, in January 2008, the Company announced the decision to suspend its participation in the commercial trailer markets and to develop a plan to run-out existing inventories, fulfill contractual obligations and close all trailer facilities during 2008.

Indeed, the 10-K's specific discussion of "competition" never mentioned their PIE-based competition as a serious factor:

The trailer market is highly competitive with relatively low barriers to entry. The majority of the cost of a new trailer comes from purchased materials of aluminum, steel, tires, axles and wood flooring. Since there is minimal product differentiation in this market, price is the key driver. The companies with the highest market share are Great Dane and Wabash, along with several other large manufacturers like Utility, Stoughton, Fontaine, Vanguard and Hyundai. The Company does not have a significant market share in the trailer market.

By that account, any minor, extra competition from a small PIE outfit didn't have nearly as much to do with Lufkin Trailer's closure as macro trends in the global trailer market and competition from larger producers. Direct Trailer isn't even mentioned in the company's 10-Ks as a significant source of competition.

So the prime example being trotted out to restrict the PIE program is a false one. International market conditions and competition from larger economic players were the reasons Lufkin Trailer closed, by the company's own assessment, not some penny ante prison industries operation.

Still, Sen. Nichols in particular continues to attack the PIE program as some villainous activity while painting Lufkin Trailer as an innocent victim of a prison jobs program. What Nichols neglects to mention is that Lufkin Industries recently lost a class action racial discrimination lawsuit brought by African American employees of Lufkin Industries (Lufkin Trailer was specifically named in the suit.) The conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in February of 2008, affirmed (pdf) most of the lower court's ruling against the company, particularly related to the "discriminatory impact of [the company's] subjective promotional policies." If Nichols and McReynolds are concerned about Lufkin Trailer employees, maybe they should be seeking remedies for those problems.

I wish the Corrections Committee was looking for ways to expand the PIE program, not restrict it beyond its current, minimalist presence in Texas prisons. After all, who would you rather have released from prison - the guy who sat around the whole time working out and swapping techniques with other cons, or the guy who went to work every day at a PIE facility and learned job skills to become a productive citizen upon release?

We need more initiatives like PIE and the Prison Entrepreneurship Program to prepare inmates for success upon reentry, not less. Efforts to restrict in-prison jobs programs IMO are misguided and counterproductive to public safety.