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10 Products You Didn’t Know Were Made By Prisoners

10 Products You Didn’t Know Were Made By Prisoners

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You’ve bought jewelry made by residents of homeless shelters, cookies made by at-risk youth and art created by people with mental illnesses. Did you know some of the most common products you can buy are made by people who are incarcerated and serving time? We’re talking cheap labor. Here are 10 products you didn’t know were made by prisoners.

flickr.com
flickr.com

Ikea products

During the years following the Cold War, prisoners in East Germany were paid a fraction of a normal salary to make furniture for Ikea. Prisoners earned about 4 percent of a regular monthly salary. Recently Ikea, which as founded in 1943, apologized to those prisoners for forced labor at unfair salaries.

Source: TheGuardian.com

flickr.com
flickr.com

Jeans

Inside the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, prisoners are making jeans at The Prison Blues Jeans Factory. The factory makes T-shirts and hats too, and has a line of boots named White’s Boots that have become well known.

Source: Prisonblues.net

wikimedia.org
wikimedia.org

Artsy Trinkets

How do the inmates pass time in the facility with the largest death row in America? By making trinkets such as jewelry boxes. At California’s San Quentin State Prison gift shop (yes, it has a gift shop) you can pick up artsy trinkets made by the inmates — some of whom are on death row. The inmates collect the revenue and use it to buy sundries in prison, or send to their families.

Source: AtlastObscura.com

wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org

Baseball caps

Usually, prison-made products can’t be sold to private companies or customers, but the government is lenient with UNICOR (Federal Prison Industries) when it comes to baseball caps. UNICOR is a U.S. government corporation created in 1934 that uses penal laborers from the Federal Bureau of Prisons to produce goods and services.

Source: Unicor.gov

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flickr.com

Victoria’s Secret lingerie

For a brief time, Victoria’s Secret and J.C. Penny had an outside company — Third Generation — do their stitch work. And Third Generation passed down that work to prisoners in South Carolina.

Source: Thenation.com

wikimedia.org
wikimedia.org

Picnic tables

The prisoners at the Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises in Florida put out more than 3000 different products and services including picnic tables, park benches and wooden trash-can holders that come from its forestry service.

Source: Pride-enterprises.org

wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org

Human silhouette targets

Decide for yourself if it’s appropriate or ironic, but UNICOR uses prisoners to make human silhouette targets used by police in training, members of the FBI and U.S. Customs officers. A U.S. government corporation created in 1934, UNICOR uses prison laborers to produce goods and services.

Source: Prisonreformmovement.wordpress.com

wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org

Books for the blind

Braille writing is a common job for prisoners in the U.S. and with the help of the American Printing House for the Blind, convicts help make braille textbooks for blind children in kindergarten through 12th grade. Many inmates also transcribe works of literature into braille.

Source: VCStar.com

wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org

Military jackets

Much of the clothing and uniforms the U.S. military wears is made by prisoners working at one of the 89 factories that belong to Federal Prison Industries, or UNICOR. The prisoners make everything from helmets to flak vests to body armor. There has been a great deal of controversy over how the federal government can pay prisoners low wages, and what that means in terms of competitiveness for the rest of the market.

Source: Huffingtonpost.com

wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org

Canoes

Your next day on the lake might be sponsored by a convict. Jailbirds at Fremont County Jail in Colorado is an inmate program that makes canoes out of recycled furniture scraps from the prison furniture store. The same inmates also make custom motorcycles, license plates and fishing rods.

Source: Coloradoci.com