Competition

An interesting story from my streaming headlines this morning, about a prison industry in Maryland:

Beeson said inmates who work in the plants tend to re-offend and return to prison at about half the rate of those who don't. Inmates must have a high-school diploma or GED to work for the agency, which can help with their schooling.

Damn. A prison program that works. Now, if we could just decide exactly why it is we have prisons in this country -- rehabilitation? punishment? deterrent?

But of course, enter the fly in the ointment:

Private furniture makers aren't as keen on prison industries. The Independent Office Products and Furniture Dealers Association, based in Arlington, Va., supports a bill passed in September by the U.S. House of Representatives that would require Federal Prison Industries Inc. to compete on a more even footing with the private sector for federal contracts. A 2004 law ended its monopoly on supplying office furniture and other items to federal agencies, but left it with some advantages, said Michael Ochs, the trade group's director of government affairs.

He said the association has concentrated on the federal, not the state level. But Ochs said state prison industries - and every state has such an agency - also cut into private industry sales.

"We would like to see open and fair competition where the industry can compete on an equal footing," Ochs said.

This stopped me for a mnute. Of course, on the face of it, a business that is paying its workers a dollar or two a day is certainly at an unfair advantage, or it would seem to be. Until you read a little farther.

Beeson said Maryland Correctional Enterprises tries to limit its negative economic impact on the private sector by producing things not made by Maryland companies.

"Every year we study it, and for the whole state of Maryland, we constitute less than 3 percent of anyone's business in any one category," he said.

Less than three percent. And the private industry association thinks that's too much. They want a level playing field. Open and fair competition. For the three percent of the market that they don't have.

Cue violin.