[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6391]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   PRISON INMATES HELP IN WAR EFFORT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Perlmutter). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, behind the thick walls of some Federal prisons, 
inmates are being put to work. Not on chain gangs tarring roads and 
hacking rocks, but in prison factories.
  Private industries are bringing their businesses behind the barbed 
wire fortresses, realizing the benefits of incarcerated inmates going 
to work. Prison industries are operated to achieve two goals: First, 
they occupy the prisoners' time to keep them busy and out of trouble. 
The second goal is to provide those incarcerated inmates a trade and 
valuable work experience, a trade and experience that can be applied to 
the American workforce once they leave the penitentiary. Prison 
industries give an inmate a sense of accomplishment and achievement, 
and the ability to have a chance to work and live as a law-abiding 
citizen beyond the prison walls.
  In the Federal prison system, UNICOR, the Federal Prison Industries, 
Incorporated, contracts out to the Federal Bureau of Prisons and hires 
inmates to work behind those tall prison walls. The inmates earn 35 
cents to $1.15 an hour. Now, Mr. Speaker, this money is paid by private 
industries, not taxpayers.
  And, here is the best part: The money that the inmates earn goes to, 
first, pay their fine; second, partial restitution to the victim 
through the Victims of Crime Act; and, third, the rest goes into a 
savings account that the inmate will get once they leave the 
penitentiary. This way, the prisoner literally earns his keep in the 
big house. He helps pay for the system he has created, relieving the 
taxpayers of this burden.
  I have had the opportunity to tour one of these prison units in 
Beaumont, Texas, at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Complex in my 
congressional district. In the Beaumont Federal prison system, prison 
inmates craft state-of-the-art military helmets for our troops fighting 
in Iraq. I have one of those helmets right here with me, Mr. Speaker.
  This is officially called by the Federal Government the ``personal 
armor for ground troops helmet.'' I just call it a helmet. It is used 
by our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is made of Kevlar, and it 
provides our warriors protection from shrapnel and bullets. These 
helmets have been credited with saving several of our troops' lives in 
Afghanistan and Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, each month the inmates at the Beaumont Prison produce 
30,000 of these helmets; 360,000 of them a year are being provided for 
our military. The Beaumont Prison factory also has the distinction of 
being the only UNICOR factory that produces these helmets. Currently, 
the prison is designing a more protective helmet that will soon be used 
in Afghanistan and Iraq.
  The 320 inmates in the Beaumont factory making these helmets are 
patriots, and they think they are because they are patriots; they are 
doing their part in the war efforts. This is a medium security 
facility, and it is not the only war contributor in the Beaumont prison 
system.
  The minimum security system in Beaumont repairs damaged tanks. They 
receive a facelift from the inmates and their engines are overhauled. 
The mechanics that work in these prisons are experts in diesel 
mechanics, and they take a once unusable piece of machinery that has 
been damaged and they turn it into a war-worthy military tank once 
more.
  Mr. Speaker, as a former judge, I believe in using inmate labor; make 
them help pay for the system they have created. The taxpayer has paid 
for the system long enough. Some of these inmates in the Beaumont 
prison I met earlier on a professional basis at the courthouse, and now 
I am glad to see that they are turning their lives around. For behind 
the steel doors and tall walls of the prison, these men go to work each 
day producing helmets that safeguard American troops from enemy fire. 
They are not forced to work in the factories, but they choose to. They 
choose to volunteer.
  The inmates I talked to are proud of our troops overseas and feel a 
sense of connection to them by making these helmets. Prison labor 
programs are a good idea for inmates and for America, and certainly for 
the American taxpayer. Some inmates are locked up behind bars because 
they harmed another person's life. Now they have the chance to redeem 
their past deeds; they now work to save the lives of our American 
soldiers. After all, Mr. Speaker, we are all in this together.
  And that's just the way it is.

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