Prison Labor Help Build Patriot Missiles for Raytheon
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Prisoners Help Build Patriot Missiles
* By Noah
Shachtman<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/author/noah_shachtman/>
This spring, the United Arab Emirates is expected to close a deal
for $7 billion dollars worth of American
arms<http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ieyYCr2E7_h3lfc9ATq3V
-WINaLA?docId=CNG.6958fb04d3c57d0b70f59e2da6073d5e.121>. Nearly
half of the
cash<http://www.raytheon.com/newsroom/technology/rtn08_patriot_uae/> will
be spent on Patriot missiles, which cost as much as $5.9 million
apiece<http://thetaiwanlink.blogspot.com/2009/01/freeze-or-reduction-of-balli
stic.html>.
But what makes those eye-popping sums even more shocking is that
some of the workers manufacturing parts for those Patriot missiles
are prisoners, earning as little as 23 cents an
hour<http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/defense-industrial-b
ase-defense-budget-defense/3/7/2011/id/33198>. (Credit Justin
Rohrlich<http://www.minyanville.com/gazette/bios.htm?bio=84> with
the catch.)
The work is done by Unicor<http://www.unicor.gov/>, previously
known as Federal Prison Industries. Its a government-owned corporation,
established during the Depression, that employs about 20,000 inmates
in 70 prisons to make everything from clothing to office furniture
to solar panels to military electronics.
One of the companys high-tech specialties: Patriot missile parts.
UNICOR/FPI supplies numerous electronic components and services for
guided missiles, including the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3)
missile, Unicors website explains. We assemble and distribute the
Intermediate Frequency Processor (IFP) for the PAC-3s seeker. The
IFP receives and filters radio-frequency signals that guide the
missile toward its target.
The missiles are then marketed worldwide sometimes by Washingtons
top
officials<http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/10/news/international/america_exports_
weapons_full.fortune/>. Last year, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
pitched the Patriots to the Turkish government last year, a diplomatic
cable<http://91.214.23.156/cablegate/wire.php?id=10ANKARA251&search=iran>
released by WikiLeaks reveals: SecDef stressed that nothing can
compete with the PAC-3 when it comes to capabilities.
Patriot assemblers Raytheon and Lockheed Martin arent the only
defense contractors relying on prison help. As Rohrlich notes,
Unicor inmates also
make<http://www.unicor.gov/electronics/cable_assemblies/index.cfm?navlocation
=BusinessInfo#1> cable assemblies for the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing
F-15, the General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin F-16, Bell/Textrons Cobra
helicopter, as well as electro-optical equipment for the BAE Systems
Bradley Fighting Vehicles laser rangefinder.
Unicor used to make helmets for the military, as well. But that
work was suspended when 44,000 helmets were
recalled<http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/business/area-military-helmet-maker
s-see-new-jobs-in-prisons-exit-from-contracts-competition-1.817860#axzz1G1oPk
QaW> for shoddy quality.
Government agencies with the exception of the Defense Department
and the CIA are required to buy goods from Unicor, according to a
Congressional Research Service
report<http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32380.pdf> (.pdf). And no
wonder: the labor costs are bordering on zero. Inmates earn from
$0.23 per hour up to a maximum of $1.15 per hour, depending on their
proficiency and educational level, among other things, the report
notes.
Last year, Unicor grossed $772 million, according to its most recent
financial
report<http://www.unicor.gov/information/publications/pdfs/corporate/FY2010.Q
4.FPI-final.pdf> (.pdf). Traditionally, inmate salaries make up
about five percent of that total.
Unicor insists that the deal is a good one for inmates and for the
government. The manufacturing work offers a chance for job training,
which improves the likelihood that inmates will remain crime-free
upon their release, the company says in its report. (Some reports
suggest that Unicor prisoners are as much as 24% less likely to
return to crime.)
The work also keeps the inmates in check, Unicor insists. In the
face of an escalating inmate population and an increasing percentage
of inmates with histories of violence, FPIs programs have helped
ease tension and avert volatile situations, thereby protecting lives
and federal property, the company says. Prisons without meaningful
activities for inmates are dangerous prisons, and dangerous prisons
are expensive prisons.
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