California: Prison industries maintain monopoly even in tough times

California prisoners, unlike law-abiding citizens, have a guaranteed market for the products they make behind bars: State agencies are required by law to buy them even if private workers can make them cheaper or better.

That monopoly is coming under fire as the state's shaky economy sparks widespread layoffs.

The sale of prison goods and services has grown into a $234 million annual industry. Many small-business owners say they can beat the Prison Industry Authority, potentially saving millions, and that taxpayers deserve open competition based on cost.

"Everything should be on a level playing field – and the winner takes the bid," said Scott Hauge, president of Small Business California.

Pending legislation supported by the California Chamber of Commerce, Assembly Bill 1771, would ease the mandate.

PIA officials say their prices are competitive and that savings also should be measured by success in reducing prison violence and keeping paroled felons from reoffending and being reincarcerated at a cost of about $50,000 per year.

"There are lots of benefits beyond just, 'Can we go out and buy this stuff more cheaply?' " said Barry Krisberg, former president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

The issue pits lawmakers' desire to prepare prisoners for gainful employment against recession-related pressure to bolster private businesses struggling to survive.

Nationally, the Federal Prison Industries program, responding to similar pressure, loosened a mandate on federal agencies in 2004 to allow purchases from private vendors offering lower prices.

I work for a California State Agency. I am a transportation engineer with Caltrans, the California DOT. We generally have to take PIA (Prison Industries Authority) items first, before buying from others like Staples or Office Depot.

The chair I bought from Staples for work cost me $149 on sale at Office Depot, regulare priced $229. It is ergonomic and fits me better than the PIA chairs. You can’t get a similar office chair for under $350 from PIA and some cost as much as $500.

There is no way a chair made from low cost prison labor needs to bill at $500.

I suspect this is just a way to transfer more of your tax dollars to the prison system. Instead of us buying chairs from Staples and using the difference to place a nice new overlay on the beat up highway you drive on in California, the differnce between all those $200 Office Depot chairs and those $400 PIA chairs, gets transfered to prisons.

Nice scam.

State bureaucracies really need to be reformed but I can’t see it happening any more than I can see good fiscal government coming to California. There really is a lot of waste and inefficiency.

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