Sylvia Kee agrees. Ms. Kee, who is serving a life prison sentence, has worked at Broward Optical for 12 years. But she says 90 percent of the 600 inmates at her prison want to work in the optical lab. It is the only program of its type in the prison. But the use of prison-based labor for private enterprise is controversial.
Some critics call it a new form of slavery and warn of the establishment of American gulags.
If you've lost your job in manufacturing, garment or furniture fabrication, telemarketing or packaging, it could have simply been sentenced to prison. Advocates of employing and paying inmates counter that the current system of human warehouses that does little to prepare prisoners to make honest livings upon release. Learning a trade like lensmaking or computer data input, and being paid a regular wage, are far different than earning 15 cents an hour to mop prison floors or wash prison dishes, they say. To prevent adverse impacts on workers outside prison, most prison-based businesses are restricted by law to supplying products only to public agencies. In a few cases, prison-made products and services may enter broader markets when they don't directly compete with other existing businesses.