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Company Uses Prison Slave Labor for $100 Million Military Contract
The prison and military industrial complexes have collided, with a private military contractor poised to make millions off the sweaty backs of prisoners.
Pennsylvania-based Woolrich Inc. plans to use the labor of federal prisoners to fulfill two multi-million-dollar contracts with the Defense Department, according to an October 2, 2005, article in The Patriot-News. In April 2005 the company was awarded a 5-year contract worth between $68 million and $100 million, to manufacture approximately 75,000 pair of Army pants annually. Woolrich was awarded a second contract in July 2005 for between 5,000 and 25,000 cold-weather jackets per year for air crews. That contract was valued at between $4 million and $19 million.
The pants and jackets will be manufactured by federal prisoners earning between $0.23 and $1.15 an hour. Given the low profit margin involved, the company could not be competitive if it paid a wage comparable to that in the community, lamented Woolrich president Roswell Brayton Jr. And because products for the military must be totally American made, Woolrich was unable to use its overseas sweatshops. Prison slave labor was the next logical step.
Federal prisoners in Atlanta, Georgia, and Beaumont, Texas, are already sewing army combat pants for Woolrich. By the end of 2005, Woolrich sewing operations will commence at prisons in Big Sandy, Kentucky, Yazoo City, Mississippi, and a fifth, as yet undisclosed prison. Manufacturing of the air crew jackets was slated to begin in November 2005 at federal prisons in Miami, Florida, and Safford, Arizona.
Source: The Patriot News
Pennsylvania-based Woolrich Inc. plans to use the labor of federal prisoners to fulfill two multi-million-dollar contracts with the Defense Department, according to an October 2, 2005, article in The Patriot-News. In April 2005 the company was awarded a 5-year contract worth between $68 million and $100 million, to manufacture approximately 75,000 pair of Army pants annually. Woolrich was awarded a second contract in July 2005 for between 5,000 and 25,000 cold-weather jackets per year for air crews. That contract was valued at between $4 million and $19 million.
The pants and jackets will be manufactured by federal prisoners earning between $0.23 and $1.15 an hour. Given the low profit margin involved, the company could not be competitive if it paid a wage comparable to that in the community, lamented Woolrich president Roswell Brayton Jr. And because products for the military must be totally American made, Woolrich was unable to use its overseas sweatshops. Prison slave labor was the next logical step.
Federal prisoners in Atlanta, Georgia, and Beaumont, Texas, are already sewing army combat pants for Woolrich. By the end of 2005, Woolrich sewing operations will commence at prisons in Big Sandy, Kentucky, Yazoo City, Mississippi, and a fifth, as yet undisclosed prison. Manufacturing of the air crew jackets was slated to begin in November 2005 at federal prisons in Miami, Florida, and Safford, Arizona.
Source: The Patriot News
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