Michigan Representative Peter Hoekstra introduced bipartisan legislation in April that seeks to “reform the predatory practices of Federal Prison Industries (FPI) while preserving work-rehabilitation opportunities for federal inmates.” FPI, a federal agency established under a Depression-era law, uses federal inmate labor to develop products and services for sale to other federal agencies.
The legislation, HR 1577, would require FPI to compete with private-sector firms for its contracts, minimizing its unfair competition with non-inmate workers and the firms that employ them and increasing the likelihood that federal agencies get the best value for taxpayers dollars.
The full text of the bill is available online in PDF format.
For more information, contact the US Bureau of Prisons.
