Prison program criticized (Florida)

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Tue, Dec. 23, 2003

Prison program criticized
Audit finds fault with inmate-work system
By Bill Cotterell
DEMOCRAT POLITICAL EDITOR

Florida's prison-industries system let an affiliate with a cozy corporate relationship run up a nearly $10 million debt with no repayment schedule, according to an audit by the Legislature's fiscal watchdogs.

The audit said the non-profit corporation known as PRIDE - Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises - loaned the money to start up Industries Training Corp., then hired it to run prison work programs without seeking other bids. Given that all the board members of Industries Training Corp. are either current or former board members of PRIDE, auditors said, it's difficult to make sure the money PRIDE makes is being properly plowed back into prisoner training and other PRIDE purposes.

PRIDE was created by the Legislature in 1981 to provide supplies and services to state agencies and at the same time provide job skills for inmates in the hope that recidivism would go down. Last fiscal year PRIDE had 1,995 work positions at 21 prisons and rang up $61 million on everything from printing and data entry to raising dairy calves and making furniture. Companies whose business has been affected by PRIDE often have complained of unfair competition.

The report found not only that some state agencies try to avoid buying from PRIDE but also that its affiliate Industries Training Corp. created further spinoffs in part to erase the stigma of using "forced labor."
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http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7553490.htm

[izzie]

1. Interesting.

I lost an out let for my art because of some thing like this. The store could take the prison stuff and not have to pay the workers as much as I would get so owner made more. I understand about the money but I was not to happy.