[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 4]
[EXTENSIO]
[Pages 5798-5799]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



             UPON INTRODUCTION OF PRISON INMATE ACT OF 2001

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 4, 2001

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing the Federal Inmate Work 
Act of 2001, a bill to help reduce crime by providing federal inmates 
real-world job skills while in prison. This bill would reform Federal 
Prison Industries so it can do a better job of rehabilitating our 
prison population before prisoners are let back out into society. 
Besides reducing crime through better rehabilitation of our inmate 
population, this legislation will improve the U.S. economy. It will 
create jobs by returning industries now operating offshore back to the 
U.S. and allowing private companies to compete with FPI for federal 
contracts.
  This legislation reforms Federal Prison Industries in a number of 
ways. First, it would allow private companies in the United States to 
use federal inmate labor to produce items that would otherwise be 
produced by foreign labor. It would phase out the mandatory source 
requirement for federal agency purchases from Federal Prison Industries 
and puts them under the same authority and standards that govern state 
prison employment programs. It allows for increased collection for 
child support and victim restitution. It reduces the cost of 
incarceration by increasing collections for rooms and board costs. It 
requires that FPI establish goals for contracts with small, minority or 
women-owned businesses as well as with organizations that employ blind 
or severely disabled workers.
  Mr. Speaker, today, there are more than 1.9 million Americans behind 
bars and the prison population continues to rise at an alarming rate. 
Approximately a quarter of those prisoners complete their sentences 
every year and return to society. Most of those former inmates, 
however, have never had a real job. Within the federal system, there 
were 145,125 inmates confined at the end of FY 2000. Current 
projections indicate that the federal inmate population will rise to 
more than 200,000 by the end of FY 2007.
  We just cannot continue to lock up thousands of men and women every 
year and hope that they will somehow mysteriously rehabilitate 
themselves in prison without learning a skill. We cannot continue to 
allow federal prisons to become finishing schools for crime, where 
criminals are paroled as experts in their craft. If the only thing you 
know how to do when you leave prison is steal or deal drugs, that is 
what you will do to survive when you are released.
  If the current prison work system is not augmented, prisons will 
become increasingly overcrowded, violent, and, most alarmingly, 
Americans will face a higher crime rate as the rate of unrehabilitated 
inmates are let out into society. Prisons should be turning out inmates 
ready to reenter mainstream society equipped to productively contribute 
to their communities. The best way to accomplish this is to put federal 
prisoners to work. Many convicts can be reformed if given the 
opportunity to learn skills other than those necessary to be successful 
in crime.
  Mr. Speaker, a 16-year study by the Justice Department of federal 
inmates, the Post-Release Employment Project, has demonstrated 
convincingly that participation in prison industries/vocational 
training programs has a positive effect on post-release employment and 
recidivism. The study revealed that inmates who worked in prison 
industries or completed vocational apprenticeship programs were 24 
percent less likely to commit crimes that nonprogram participants. The 
data also revealed that these programs provide even greater benefit to 
minority and low income groups that are at the greatest risk for 
potentially returning to a criminal lifestyle upon their release.
  Employment, particularly industrial jobs, is the key factor in 
combating the adverse impact of crowding in a prison setting. Work, 
education, and vocational training not only reduce the debilitating 
idleness of a crowded institution, but offer important security 
management benefits such as supervised time out of cells.
  Idleness, on the other hand, breeds apathy and discontent. Boredom 
turns to frustration resulting in violent and criminal behavior. The 
old adage that ``idleness is the devil's workshop'' reaffirms what can 
happen when an inmate's time is not productively occupied.
  Mr. Speaker, this legislation will also be beneficial to the U.S. 
economy. First this legislation would revamp the Federal Prison 
Industries program by allowing federal inmates to produce goods that 
are presently being made offshore. For example, our prison populations 
could learn to produce items such as televisions and VCRs and other 
products now provided by non-American sources. This public-private 
partnership may actually help improve our balance of trade by reducing 
imports. A panel made up of representatives from the Departments of 
Commerce and Labor, the International Trade Commission, the Small 
Business Administration, the business community and organized labor 
would ensure that domestic labor was not threatened by this new 
authority for FPI.
  This also would create ancillary jobs in the domestic economy as a 
result of bringing back certain industries whose entire economic 
support structure is located overseas. Bringing back manufacturing jobs 
that have gone overseas will create other jobs. Raw materials will need 
to be brought into the prisons and finished products will have to be 
taken out. This will mean jobs for the local trucking companies. 
Teachers and craftsmen will need to be hired to teach the inmates the 
necessary skills. This is more than just giving federal prisoners the 
necessary skills to become productive members of society, it is about 
creating jobs for Americans, on American soil.
  Finally, the bill also facilitates restitution programs that meet the 
true meaning of restitution by setting up programs where the inmate 
directly compensates the victim of that inmate's crime. Programs that 
merely take

[[Page 5799]]

money from prisoners and put it into a general fund without earmarking 
it for their victim are merely fines. Restitution in the true sense, 
requires that the offender directly compensate the victim and therefore 
require the offender to acknowledge their responsibility to the victim.
  This legislation reforms FPI in a way that will allow us to do a 
better job of rehabilitating our rising inmate population and reducing 
the crime rate of released inmates. At the same time, it will help the 
U.S. economy and will be a better deal for the U.S. taxpayers. I 
encourage my colleagues to cosponsor this legislation, and support the 
FPI's mission to rehabilitate our inmates by providing an opportunity 
for inmates to gain meaningful employment skills and come out of prison 
as productive members of society.

                          ____________________