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>>Narrator: This legislative summary is provided to you by Main Street Insider.
This week we examine the Prison Industries Act, model legislation written by the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC
In 1979, the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program eased restrictions on the use of prison labor by private companies.
>>Elk: We're seeing it expand everywhere throughout the United States, the use of prison labor.
We have 2.7 million people in prison, that’s one out of every one hundred adults
That’s a huge workforce, corporations really want to tap into it
>>Narrator: ALEC’s Prison Industries Act leverages loopholes, in provisions meant to prevent unfair competition, to the benefit of private corporations.
Specifically, it diverts a portion of the money deducted from inmate pay to private sector prison industries expansion accounts,
Creates a “Private Sector Prison Industries Oversight Authority” composed of stakeholders appointed by the governor,
And drastically expands the cases in which prison labor can be used.
Supporters view this legislation as a way to provide cheap labor while offsetting the costs of imprisonment.
>>Morris: One of the reasons we exist is to be a tax reduction organization
And we lower the cost of institutions and lower the cost of operations to the institutions.
>>Narrator: Opponents worry that these policies amount to slave labor, undermine the wages of all workers,
And create an economic incentive for imprisonment
>>Uygur: Our system has been so corrupted that these private companies simply buy the politicians,
They get them to pass any laws that they like, they create more prisoners and then they turn around,
Profit of the prisoners, and then make them do nearly slave labor and profit off of that as well.
>>Narrator: 37 states and four other jurisdictions have certified Prison Industry Enhancement programs.
As of June 30th 2010 30 of those programs were active.
Tune in next week for a 90 second summary of the Re-building America’s Schools act from
www.MainStreetInsider.org