Competing With Inmates
Bobbie Gentile founded Q-Mark Inc., a small electronics company, 15 years ago. Since then, she's managed to hold the Dayton, Ohio-based firm's sales relatively steady. But until recently, one potential client has been elusive: the Pentagon.
Q-Mark's electronic connectors can be used on just about "anything that flies, floats or shoots," Gentile says. The Pentagon needs thousands, but historically, Defense officials have been required to buy them first from prison workshops, even if Q-Mark can offer the same connector for $10 to $20 cheaper, Gentile says.
That's changed in the past few years as a result of vigorous lobbying from furniture, textile, electronics and other businesses that compete with Federal Prison Industries Inc., the government corporation created in 1934 to run the workshops. Since 2002, when trade associations won their first victory in a long-standing effort to unravel FPI's corner on the federal marketplace, Q-Mark's government business has "easily doubled," Gentile says.
Lawmakers established FPI, also known as Unicor, during the Depression to keep federal inmates busy and to help them develop vocational skills and reduce recidivism. FPI sustains itself without congressional appropriations. But the corporation has benefited from a captive audience: Until recently, agencies have been required to buy office furniture, uniforms and other products made at prison workshops.
In the July 15 issue of Government Executive magazine, staff correspondent Amelia Gruber writes about the changing horizon for the Federal Prison industries. Read the full story here.
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