The Honorable Carl Levin, Chairman
Senate Armed Services Committee
269 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Re: Civil Rights Community Urges Opposition to Attaching Federal Prison Industries Bill (H.R. 1577) to Department of Defense Authorization Bills
Dear Chairman Levin and Members of the Defense Authorization Conference Committee:
We are writing to urge you to oppose any attempts to add H.R. 1577 to the conference report reconciling the differences between the House and Senate Defense Authorization bills (H.R. 4546 and S. 2514) unless certain perfecting amendments are added. H.R. 1577 passed out of the House Judiciary Committee and was reported to the Committee of the Whole on July 16, 2002 (Report No. 107-583). In its current form, H.R. 1577 would cripple the Federal Prison Industries Program (FPI, also commonly referred to as UNICOR) and eliminate thousands of employment opportunities for prisoners. Representative Bobby Scott, ranking member of the crime sub-committee, was promised that he would have the opportunity to introduce an amendment when the bill went to the House floor for consideration. Attaching H.R 1577 in its current form to the DoD authorization bill forecloses the opportunity for Mr. Scott and others to offer amendments that might improve H.R. 1577 and ameliorate the damage it would cause to prison industry programs.
H.R. 1577 eliminates the mandatory sourcing requirement, a provision in current law that gives preference to FPI in some contracts with the federal government. The undersigned individuals and organizations do not take a position on the merits of mandatory sourcing. We understand that over the years, small businesses and labor have raised legitimate complaints about the practices of FPI. There are bi-partisan efforts underway to address these concerns. Unfortunately, H.R 1577 does not reflect a solution that accommodates all parties' interests. Instead of mending the problems at FPI, we believe that H.R. 1577 will, for all intents and purposes, end FPI's ability to provide meaningful work opportunities for inmates.
Besides eliminating mandatory sourcing, H.R. 1577 places artificial caps on market shares and does not provide sufficient alternatives to the jobs that will be lost by eliminating mandatory sourcing. Conservative estimates indicate that 50% of the 22,560 prisoners (18% of the federal prison population) employed in FPI will lose their jobs immediately. Long-term estimates are that FPI will only be able to provide jobs to 3% of the prison population. None of the other measures in H.R. 1577 will be able to replace the jobs that will be lost. Current estimates indicate that the prison population will double in the next 7 years. The increased prison population will exacerbate the lost employment opportunities caused by H.R. 1577.
The undersigned individuals and organizations support voluntary prison work as an important component of rehabilitation. Most prisoners have poor literacy skills and few job skills and therefore a history of unemployment and crime. Programs that reduce illiteracy, allow prisoners to earn a high school diploma and provide vocational training and work skills are beneficial to prisoner rehabilitation and have been shown to be very effective in decreasing recidivism. A program that provides real work experience can teach useful job skills and good work habits that will be vital to the ex-offenders' reintegration into the community. Currently, the federal Bureau of Prisons provides very few positive opportunities to prisoners. Congress has eliminated Pell grants, parole, and good time credits. This means that prisoners have very few incentives to improve themselves while in prison (and be on good behavior). FPI serves an important rehabilitative function and incentive for good behavior in prison.
The proponents of H.R. 1577 point out that the bill provides some additional funding for rehabilitation programs. We support these provisions. However, we are concerned that sufficient money for these programs will not be appropriated. We further believe that the rehabilitation programs cannot replace the benefits of having an actual job. Even international law requires that prisons provide work opportunities. The United Nations' Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners requires that prisons provide appropriate work opportunities for inmates as an important part of their rehabilitation.
FPI runs effective and valuable rehabilitative programs. These programs help prisoners gain important life skills thereby decreasing recidivism; they also give prisoners income, which they can use to pay restitution to victims, fines to the government and child support to their families. Because the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) disproportionately confines African Americans and Hispanics, they represent 40.8 percent and 31.7 percent of the BOP population respectively; these communities will be particularly impacted by the loss of prison employment opportunities. Genuine efforts to rehabilitate prisoners and reduce recidivism rates will benefit offenders and the families and communities they come home to.
This Bill Was not Thoroughly Considered by the House and Senate
The Conference Committee is considering amending a 60-year statute with a bill that all but eliminates a productive, rehabilitation program. Neither the House nor Senate passed this bill. Although the House Judiciary Committee considered and passed the bill out of Committee, the entire House never voted on it. Furthermore, the Senate has not considered H.R. 1577 at either the Committee level or on the floor. This lack of process alone should give conferees pause.
We urge you to oppose attaching this bill to the final conference report. Thank you very much for your attention to this important issue.
Sincerely,
Charles G. Adams, Pastor
Hartford Memorial Baptist Church
Former President, Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.
Former President, Detroit Branch NAACP
Elizabeth Alexander, Director
National Prison Project of the ACLU
Dr. Ziad Asali, President
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
Nihad Awad, Executive Director
Council on American-Islamic Relations
Randy Berg, Executive Director
Florida Justice Institute, Inc.
Rhonda Brownstein, Legal Director
Southern Poverty Law Center
Marion Chartoff, Staff Attorney
Southern Center for Human Rights
James R. "Chip" Coldren, Jr., Ph.D.
President
John Howard Association
Jamie Fellner, Director
U.S. Programs
Human Rights Watch
Lawrence S. Goldman, President
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Kate Green, Youth Advocate
Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana
Ron Hampton, Executive Director
National Black Police Association
Isaac M. Jaroslawicz, Executive Director & Director of Legal Affairs
The Aleph Institute
Angus Love, Executive Director
Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project
Vince Nathan, Partner
Arnold and Caruso and On the Faculty of University of Toledo Department of Criminal Justice
Vincent Schiraldi, President
Justice Policy Institute
Marie Sennett, Executive Director
D.C. Prisoners' Legal Services
Hilary Shelton, Director
Washington Bureau
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Dr. Steven S. Spencer, MD
Consultant in Correctional Health Care
Former Medical Director for the New Mexico Dept. of Corrections
Tom Terrizzi, Executive Director
Prisoners' Legal Services of New York
Raul Yzaguirre, President
National Council of La Raza