{"id":10693,"date":"2011-03-14T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2011-03-13T23:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=10693"},"modified":"2011-03-10T17:43:19","modified_gmt":"2011-03-10T16:43:19","slug":"prisoners-help-build-patriot-missiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2011\/03\/prisoners-help-build-patriot-missiles\/","title":{"rendered":"Prisoners Help Build Patriot Missiles"},"content":{"rendered":"

This spring, the United Arab Emirates is expected to close a deal for $7 billion dollars\u2019 worth of American arms<\/a>. Nearly half of the cash<\/a> will be spent on Patriot missiles, which cost as much as $5.9 million apiece<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But what makes those eye-popping sums even more shocking is that some of the workers manufacturing parts for those Patriot missiles are prisoners, earning as little as 23 cents an hour<\/a>. (Credit Justin Rohrlich<\/a> with the catch.)<\/p>\n

The work is done by Unicor<\/a>,\u00a0 previously known as Federal Prison Industries. It\u2019s a government-owned corporation, established during the Depression, that employs about 20,000 inmates in 70 prisons to make everything from clothing to office furniture to solar panels to military electronics.<\/p>\n

One of the company\u2019s high-tech specialties: Patriot missile parts. \u201cUNICOR\/FPI supplies numerous electronic components and services for guided missiles, including the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missile,\u201d Unicor\u2019s website explains. \u201cWe assemble and distribute the Intermediate Frequency Processor (IFP) for the PAC-3s seeker. The IFP receives and filters radio-frequency signals that guide the missile toward its target.\u201d<\/p>\n

The missiles are then marketed worldwide \u2014 sometimes by Washington\u2019s top officials<\/a>. Last year, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pitched the Patriots to the Turkish government last year, a diplomatic cable<\/a> released by WikiLeaks reveals: \u201cSecDef stressed that \u2018nothing can compete with the PAC-3 when it comes to capabilities.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Patriot assemblers Raytheon and Lockheed Martin aren\u2019t the only defense contractors relying on prison help. As Rohrlich notes, Unicor \u201cinmates also make<\/a> cable assemblies for the McDonnell Douglas\/Boeing F-15, the General Dynamics\/Lockheed Martin F-16, Bell\/Textron\u2019s Cobra helicopter, as well as electro-optical equipment for the BAE Systems Bradley Fighting Vehicle\u2019s laser rangefinder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unicor used to make helmets for the military, as well. But that work was suspended when 44,000 helmets were recalled<\/a> for shoddy quality.<\/p>\n

Government agencies \u2014 with the exception of the Defense Department and the CIA \u2014 are required to buy goods from Unicor, according to a Congressional Research Service report<\/a> (.pdf). And no wonder: the labor costs are bordering on zero. \u201cInmates earn from $0.23 per hour up to a maximum of $1.15 per hour, depending on their proficiency and educational level, among other things,\u201d the report notes.<\/p>\n

Last year, Unicor grossed $772 million, according to its most recent financial report<\/a> (.pdf). Traditionally, inmate salaries make up about five percent of that total.<\/p>\n

Unicor insists that the deal is a good one for inmates \u2014 and for the government. The manufacturing work offers a chance for job training, which \u201cimproves the likelihood that inmates will remain crime-free upon their release,\u201d the company says in its report. (Some reports suggest that Unicor prisoners are as much as 24% less likely to return to crime.)<\/p>\n

The work also keeps the inmates in check, Unicor insists. \u201cIn the face of an escalating inmate population and an increasing percentage of inmates with histories of violence, FPI\u2019s programs have helped ease tension and avert volatile situations, thereby protecting lives and federal property,\u201d the company says. \u201cPrisons without meaningful activities for inmates are dangerous prisons, and dangerous prisons are expensive prisons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 wired.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This spring, the United Arab Emirates is expected to close a deal for $7 billion dollars\u2019 worth of American arms. Nearly half of the cash will be spent on Patriot missiles, which cost as much as $5.9 million apiece. But what makes those eye-popping sums even more shocking is that some of the workers manufacturing parts for those Patriot missiles are prisoners, earning as little as 23 cents an hour. (Credit Justin Rohrlich with the catch.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}