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TX: UNICOR continues to use prisoners to recycle electornics

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Prison inmates dismantle Ark. recycled electronics © 2009 The Associated Press April 19, 2009, 7:41PM FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. ? Some federal prison inmates spend their days tearing apart cellular phones and dismantling computers recycled in Arkansas. The prisoners, working as part of the Federal Prison Industries, salvage copper and other materials later sold to metal dealers. Last year alone, the prison industry had $10.5 million in net sales. Unicor, a part of the Federal Prison Industries, uses 876 inmates in seven federal prisons to do the electronic recycling work, according to a company financial statement. Most of northwest Arkansas' recycled electronics go to the federal prison in Texarkana, Texas. The work is part of a voluntary program and pays well above the standard wage for an inmate, said Steve Wentzel, an executive assistant at the Texarkana prison...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on April 20, 2009 (boomark / email).