Prison recycling programs called unsafe

Prison recycling programs called unsafe

Report released as part of Austin's e-waste conference

By Asher Price
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, October 18, 2006

A federal recycling program that uses cheap prison labor subjects its inmate workers — including those at a Texas facility — to unsafe working conditions, according to a report to be released today in Austin by prisoner and environmental activist groups.

Prisoners employed by Federal Prison Industries Inc., a company owned by the federal government, recycle computers and other electronics in hazardous conditions, according to "Toxic Sweatshops," a report by several groups, including the California-based Computer TakeBack Campaign and the Prison Activist Resource Center. The report's release coincides with the opening of E-Scrap, a national electronic waste conference being held in Austin.

"It's true they're prisoners, but they're also humans," said Barbara Kyle, who runs the Computer TakeBack Campaign, which promotes recycling of electronic material. "There's no reason their workplace shouldn't be as safe as anyone on the outside. It's a complete double standard to say it's OK to run this operation just like it might run in the Third World."

Improperly recycling electronic waste can expose workers to chemicals such as lead, a neurotoxin, and cadmium, which has been linked to kidney damage, said Robin Schneider, director of the Texas Campaign for the Environment, which has pushed cities and businesses in Central Texas to dispose of their old electronic equipment responsibly.

"As the number of electronics per household and office is just continuing to grow, the amount of waste will continue to grow," Schneider said. "Electronic waste could be a source of new jobs, of green-collar jobs."

Since 1934, Federal Prison Industries, known as UNICOR, has employed inmates to do everything from building office furniture to making clothes. Its motto is, "When the prisoners work, so does the system." One of its recycling facilities cited in the report is in Texarkana.

The company follows all federal and state health and safety rules, spokesman Todd Baldau said.

"Staff and inmates who disassemble computers are equipped with personal protective equipment, including safety glasses, leather work gloves, safety shoes and ear protection," Baldau said, adding that inmates also have access to full-face respirators, coveralls and Kevlar sleeves. Environmental tests for air quality are conducted periodically.

Inmates employed by UNICOR receive 23 cents to $1.15 per hour. Baldau said the company's net profit was $64.5 million last year.

In 2003, after a dogged effort by the Texas Campaign for the Environment, Dell Inc. pulled out of a recycling contract with UNICOR.

"We adopted a prohibition on using any indentured labor," said Bryant Hilton, a spokesman for the computer company. "We continue to understand the issue and put it into policy."

Scrutiny of UNICOR has mounted since 2001, when a health and safety manager at a California prison claimed that workers were recycling under unsafe conditions. The manager, Leroy Smith, said the conditions — in which workers used "barbaric metal tools" to rip open computers and lacked protective clothing or respirators — put inmates and staff members in danger.

"If we focus just on the staff, then we've lost our humanity," said Smith, who is in town for this week's E-Scrap conference. "Even if they've been convicted of a crime, prisoners are human beings, too, and they deserve to be protected and to know what they're being exposed to."

In summer 2005, the federal Bureau of Prisons conceded that prisoners and staff members in at least three UNICOR facilities, including the Texarkana site, had been exposed to toxins that exceeded federal limits. It also claimed that the problems had been fixed. But this year, the federal Office of the Special Counsel, an independent investigative agency, said the report was inadequate and called for further investigation.

"Federal employees and prisoners (are) inhaling poisons due to the neglect of their superiors, and federal agencies (are) whitewashing the investigation," U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch said in a statement last month prepared for a ceremony honoring Smith.

"Now some people might say, prisoners getting poisoned? What's the big deal? Who cares? We do."