End Government Sourcing Requirement for US Prisoner-Made Products, AAFA Says to Candidates
The American Apparel and Footwear Association sent a letter to the four top presidential candidates asking them to end the U.S. government’s requirement to source from Federal Prison Industries (UNICOR) any products that can be made by the government-owned company,…
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which employs over 12,000 prisoners to produce uniforms (here). "The U.S. government rightly prohibits the importation of goods manufactured by prison laborers, but then turns around and buys hundreds of millions of dollars from local U.S. prison factories,” AAFA CEO Rick Helfenbein said in a statement accompanying the letters to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Republican candidate Donald Trump, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein (here). “This duplicity and double dealing must cease. We need to put America's workers first and stop the federal reliance on prison labor." The letter adds that UNICOR’s manufacturing, which largely includes uniforms, undermines “Made-in-USA” initiatives. The campaigns didn’t comment.