The inmate work program has been part of prison operations since the Walnut Street Jail opened in 1790 in Philadelphia. The Quakers, the founders of the Walnut Street Jail, believed in the labor of the prisoners so hard they became a key part of the operation of the first prison in the United States. In the first programs applied working in individual cells of spinning wheels, textile plates and corrections. When the Auburn system emerged, agents were allowed to operate in settings that were more productive for making sales of goods. Such practices were carried out by the captives to help them get a portion of their survival of their food by labor cost. The prison industry was gradually recognized as a mutually beneficial enterprise. The present work of the prison also benefited the state, so that it could support itself with sufficient prisons, rather than the rehabilitation of inmates.
In the early 1800s, public prisons were leased to private individuals. A company winning a profitable lease would essentially become the lessor and have control over its prison and employment. The farmer could employ the peasants in his industrial operations, so as to spend as little as possible to house and feed the inmates. They would try to earn as much as possible through unpaid work. These practices continued into the twentieth century, when the abuse of leases brought an end to most of them. The states then returned to their prison industries to keep both inmates busy and create profit from the production and sale of goods. .
In the first 40 years, the 20-year-old prison population grew by 174 percent. To house this growth, prisons were built as large industrial sites and the main function of the prison became the production of goods. These prison industries became so effective that organized labor began to complain about unfair competition. A series of laws from 1929 to 1940 effectively ended the sale of prison products on the open market.
Prison industries began to produce goods that could be used by state and federal governments. With the “state-use” system, prison industries began to produce products such as inmate clothing and furniture. They also began to grow food besides their own consumption as furniture and products for the manufacture of other public service institutions. The United States Congress established the Federal Prison Industry (FPI) in 1934 to take full control of the corporation that operated the prison industry in federal prisons. Today, FPI is a major producer of goods for the US government, producing and selling nearly $500 million worth of products a year. Although many have passed over the past 200 years, in many ways, today’s prison work programs are essentially the same as in early US prisons.
