I live in the United States of America. We are not #1 in many things, but we are #1 in having the most people in prison. My discussion here will be coming from that perspective, and may not be applicable to everyone outside of the U.S.

They are stealing our jobs! Buy American!

We have all likely grown up hearing this. Due to market disincentives created by our government it has encouraged any businessman with half a brain to consider getting the work done outside of the U.S. This is not due to lack of workers, or lack of infrastructure, it is due to Government (aka The State) passing so many laws and putting up so much red tape, and taking taxes for stupid things. Why wouldn't a smart businessman look for a better deal?

Now the ramifications to that are that much of the infrastructure that was here to do these jobs has crumbled and decayed. If certain parts of our electrical grid break down, we cannot even manufacture a replacement for them in our country because facilities to do that no longer exist. We have to order them and have them shipped here.

Something I've never heard other people talk about.

I had a job in 1994 - 1996 time frame at a place in Denver, Colorado called Correctional, Products & Services, Inc. I have an extensive background in computing but had never up to that point used a spreadsheet. Let me tell you I became very good at spreadsheets very quick. I was involved in making all the parts lists, printing out the bills of lading, and packing lists of shipments, etc. All spreadsheets for the most part. This gave me a unique chance to see how much things cost, and how much material was being shipped where.

This business shipped furniture kits in various stages of construction from just shipping the parts, to shipping assembled but not finished furniture, to in rare cases shipping a fully completed piece.

Where did they ship this?

Prisons all over the country where they were assembled and then shipped to other places. I remember us making the desk for the Governor of Illinois. We shipped full trailer truck loads of furniture to prisons on a weekly basis. Pennsylvania, Colorado (Juniper Valley Products), Texas (UNICOR), Utah (Draper), and many other places. It was big money.

What were they doing with this?

They were having inmates assemble the furniture for less than $1/hr and then selling them. A lot of government departments are mandated they must purchase a certain amount of materials from these sources.

Colorado Correctional Industries
California Prison Industry Authority
UNICOR - Federal
Utah Correctional Products
Texas Correctional Industries

My father crafted hand made furniture

My father made great works of art in hand crafted furniture made to order. This type of business did not impact him, but it did start to make me wonder how many businesses that used to make desks, chairs, tables, credenzas, beds, etc were no longer in business due to it now being handled by inmates.

It's no longer pounding rocks, and making license plates

Prisons are not making just furniture. They are making clothing, food stuffs, doing technical IT contract work, etc. If you contract certain companies to make your website it might be an inmate who makes that website.

They make a lot of things.

So while you were yelling about outsourcing and buy American...

The Prison Industrial Complex was ramping up and getting subsidized by the government while simultaneously building sweatshops right under our noses.

You wonder why they don't want to legalize Marijuana. It is one of their best sources for their slave labor. I strongly believe that the Prison Industrial Complex is a growing motivation for why many victim less crimes exist.

So next time you see them endorsing some new law out there due to someone being unhappy about something frivolous take the time to wonder if you too could become the next slave in the INSOURCING movement in our nation.

If we are going to fight the war on drugs, the war on terrorism aimed at our citizens, the crazy hijacking of the word Piracy, etc. We need to be very aware of this extremely large player in these acts.

Start paying attention to the Prison Industrial Complex. They are more important than I think most people realize, and if you wonder why we have a lot of the crazy laws we have, it is very likely they are a good part of that reason.