Labor leaders fuming over Texas prison plan
Source: By LISA SANDBERG, Houston Chronicle, September 14, 2006
....... It's one of a handful of operations in which an estimated 500 state inmates in three prisons make products such as windows and air-conditioning parts for the private sector. The program, in both public and private detention facilities, is part of the federal Prison Industry Enhancement (PIE) initiative. It has long rankled labor leaders, who've complained quietly that it could slowly but surely displace better-paid workers outside prison. That opposition is getting noisier as the state appears ready to add two new PIE operations to the four it now has.
...... The issue pits those anguished by the erosion of middle-class jobs, many of which have gone overseas, against those trying to rehabilitate inmates and enhance prison security. "This is not meant to displace workers in the free world, it is meant to reduce recidivism," said Randa Taylor, spokeswoman for the Geo Group, which operates the minimum-security Lockhart Unit, site of the largest PIE operations in the state.