Just a note on politics...

From an email I received concerning business using inmate labor in their operations:

"..A company called Unique Performance, which builds custom-made "muscle
cars" and other vehicles for private sale, is proposing to employ 35 to 40
inmates at the Boyd Unit in Teague, Texas, to "assemble car bodies."
A contact at TDCJ whose job includes keeping us informed of these operations
under the federal Prison Industries Enhancement Act said the inmates will be
assembling car kits from China. The company will then install engines and
transmission and finish the assembly of the vehicle.
The notification to Texas AFL-CIO President Emmett Sheppard declares,
"Unique Performance is cognizant of the displacement of workers and
prevailing wage issues." Attached Texas Workforce Commission documentation
states that in Freestone County, the project would not displace non-inmate
workers. And the documentation notes that the average wage for "Production
Workers" on such projects in the region that includes the Boyd Unit is
$11.36 an hour. Assemblers and Fabricators get $10.11. In my experience
following these operations, PIE wages are significantly lower than the
averages.
For well over a decade, since Texas first started launching these types of
operations in private prisons, our objection to this line of calculation has
been that the true measure of whether a prison plant competes with the free
world is where the goods go, not where the manufacturing occurs. Is there
any question that the building of cars anywhere in the U.S. competes with
free-world workers anywhere in the U.S.?
Unique Performance has a web site. I could discern nothing on that web site
that would suggest that the lofty prices customers are being asked to pay
for various kits, accessories and finished vehicles might soon include the
product of prison labor."

Ok, so the kits come from China, workers are prisoners, which I don't object to prisiors working I just object to their use to increase business profits at tax payer expense. I assume that the state handles all health care and the tax payer pays. No retirement. Food, housing and clothing also on us.

So you say, Carl you really want an $11 per hour job assembling cars? No I have blessed to have the opportunity for a better job, but I advise you to investigate cuts in aid programs for students wanting to attend college. They have been deep in recent years so chances for continuing education to allow more skilled workers are less. So this all adds up to be a bad thing.

Just think, what if all state employees were replaced by inmates. Not too far out of the equation, grounds keepers at the high school, sell tickets at high school sporting events, run state park concessions, drive the Texas State Railroad engine, man those cameras at intersections that give automatic tickets, what a twist, you can make your own list.

This is just one of numerous ways the state uses inmate labor. They also make postal uniforms. Why you ask? Because the demand for uniforms by the department of defense are overwhelming other manufactors. Don't forget to add the cause of that into the equation either.

Ok, soap box removed.