Hearing on Fed. Prison Industries, Inc., one of the most important correctional programs in the Fed. Bureau of Prisons (FBP). Through this program, inmates are employed in productive, real-life work and learn basic job skills, self-discipline, and the importance of honest, productive work to our society. Under the trade name UNICOR, it produces goods in over 150 product lines and has gross annual revenues in excess of $459 million. The UNICOR program is entirely self-sufficient. No taxpayer moneys are used to operate it. Witnesses: Kathleen Hawk, Dir. of the FBP, and Steve Schwalb, COO of UNICOR; and Joseph Aragon, chmn. of the Board of Directors.

This document records the oral and written testimony of witnesses at a Congressional hearing on UNICOR, Federal Prison Industries, Inc., a self-supporting government corporation created in 1934 to formalize prison management efforts to provide dependable work for the greatest number of inmates. The hearing centered on concerns about providing enough work for federal prisoners to learn from it and to be kept occupied and from private sector concerns about displacing work that can be done by private firms. Witnesses included representatives of manufacturers, labor unions, prison management associations, and government agencies. Various proposals were made to increase the labor-intensive aspects of prisoner work without displacing private companies from selling to the federal government. Industry representatives opposed mandatory preference for prison work-products for purchase by the federal government. Discussion was not conclusive. (KC)