From dentures to shower curtains to pill bottles, almost everything you can imagine is being made in American prisons. Also implicit in the past and present use of prison labor are Microsoft, Nike, Nintendo, Honda, Pfizer, Saks Fifth Avenue, JCPenney, Macy’s, Starbucks, and more. For an even more detailed list of businesses that use prison labor, visit buycott.com, but the real guilty party here is the United States government. UNICOR, the corporation created and owned by the federal government to oversee penal labor, sets the condition and wage standards for working inmates.

One of the highest-paying prison jobs in the country? Sewing American flags for the state police.

Whole Foods. The costly organic supermarket often nicknamed “Whole Paycheck” purchases artisan cheese and fish prepared by inmates who work for private companies. The inmates are paid .74 cents a day to raise tilapia that is subsequently sold for $11.99 a pound at the fashionable grocery store.

McDonald’s. The world’s most successful fast food franchise purchases a plethora of goods manufactured in prisons, including plastic cutlery, containers, and uniforms.The inmates who sew McDonald’s uniforms make even less money by the hour than the people who wear them.

Wal-Mart. Although their company policy clearly states that “forced or prison labor will not be tolerated by Wal-Mart”, basically every item in their store has been supplied by third-party prison labor factories. Wal-Mart purchases its produce from prison farms where laborers are often subjected to long, arduous hours in the blazing heat without adequate sunscreen, water, or food.

.Victoria’s Secret. Female inmates in South Carolina sew undergarments and casual-wear for the pricey lingerie company. In the late 1990’s, 2 prisoners were placed in solitary confinement for telling journalists that they were hired to replace “Made in Honduras” garment tags with “Made in U.S.A.” tags. Victoria’s Secret has declined to comment.

Aramark. This company, which also provides food to colleges, public schools and hospitals, has a monopoly on foodservice in about 600 prisons in the U.S. Despite this, Aramark has a history of poor foodservice, including a massive food shortage that caused a prison riot in Kentucky in 2009.

AT&T. In 1993, the massive phone company laid off thousands of telephone operators—all union members—in order to increase their profits. Even though AT&T’s company policy regarding prison labor reads eerily like Wal-Mart’s, they have consistently used inmates to work in their call centers since ’93, barely paying them $2 a day.

BP. When BP spilled 4.2 million barrels of oil into the Gulf coast, the company sent a workforce of almost exclusively African-American inmates to clean up the toxic spill while community members, many of whom were out-of-work fisherman, struggled to make ends meet. BP’s decision to use prisoners instead of hiring displaced workers outraged the Gulf community, but the oil company did nothing to reconcile the situation.

1. Books for the blind
There are 36 prison Braille-writing programs in the United States. Through the American Printing House for the Blind, offenders help write K-12 textbooks for blind students. In Missouri, the Center for Braille and Narration Production employs 102 convicts, many whom are certified through the Library of Congress. They transcribe anything, from novels to music.

Park benches and picnic tables
In Florida, PRIDE (Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises) trains about 4000 inmates, who produce and provide over 3000 products and services. PRIDE’s forestry service makes park furniture like picnic tables, park benches, and wooden trashcan holders. Sixty-nine percent of PRIDE graduates are paid a max of 1.00 per hour of labor.

Canoes
Colorado Correction Industries oversees approximately 60 inmate work programs. Jailbirds at Fremont County Jail, for example, build fiberglass-sealed canoes. They use scraps from the prison’s furniture shop and sell the canoes for around $1500. Other Colorado programs help craft those ubiquitous college dormitory desks and bookshelves.

San Quentin State Prison in California is a scary place. It houses some of the most menacing criminals in the nation, and it’s home to the largest death row in the United States. But at least it has a gift shop. There, you can buy convict-made music boxes, drawings, and paintings. You can even get yourself a greeting card made by one of death row’s own.the funds go to the prisons account and inmates keep a small portion.

Horses
In Colorado, the Wild Horses Inmate Program (WHIP) trains wild mustangs, prepping them for adoption. Since 1986, the program has trained over 5000 mustangs.these horses are trained for pennies on the dollar by felons than sold or adopted, Saddle trained mustangs: The total price for saddle trained mustangs adopted from the Canon City facility is $1,025. This includes the adoption fee of $125 and a training fee of $900.00.

.At the Twin Rivers Corrections Unit in Monroe, Washington, Signature Packaging Solutions uses inmate labor for its packaging needs. Signature Packaging Solutions provides packaging services for corporations such as Starbucks. In 2002, Starbucks’ public affairs director Audrey Lincoff released a statement to the Seattle Weekly stating “Starbucks is aware that Signature uses inmate labor and believes its contract with Signature is entirely consistent with our mission statement.”

The group, the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, said in its report that inmates who work at the prison recycling operation were not protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act and were paid from 20 cents to $1.26 an hour.The report also criticized Unicor for not properly disposing of toxic waste.The coalition said that it would like to see Dell and other high-technology companies devise a more systematic approach to recycling the goods they manufacture.”Companies deliver their products to market in an efficient manner and we want them to do the same thing for disposing of them,” said Sheila Davis, project director for the coalition’s Clean Computer Campaign.The coalition said that reliance on cheap prison labor was a major obstacle to the creation of a profitable recycling industry for discarded electronics.The other obstacle, the group said, is the export industry, which sends materials to Asia for recycling.

AT&T. In 1993, the massive phone company laid off thousands of telephone operators—all union members—in order to increase their profits. Even though AT&T’s company policy regarding prison labor reads eerily like Wal-Mart’s, they have consistently used inmates to work in their call centers since ’93, barely paying them $2 a day.

UNICOR’s inmate employees work on making jackets, helmets, uniforms and shoes for the United States military. An Alabama company, American Apparel Inc. also provides the same services to the U.S. military however, an executive at the company told CNN Money that competition for the contracts has become too stiff resulting in the company having to lay off 150 people over several years.

Blue jeans
The Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution is home to a 47,000 square foot facility: The Prison Blues Jeans Factory. It makes jeans, jackets, T-shirts, and hats,We are located in Eastern Oregon near the base of the Blue Mountains in historic Pendleton Oregon, USA. All of our Prison Blues brand clothing are made by inmates currently serving time at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institute,the profit goes to pay the inmates charge for being in the facility.Denim Apparel Proudly Made In The USA is their motto .

http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=23628275  Since its exposure Signature packing solutions has been aquired by another fortune 500 corporation a often used tactic to hide prison labor http://www.usacorporates.com/us/business/signature-packaging-solutions/cw7D5t9D  Signature reported making just short of 5 million i the fiscal year http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20050822005578/en/Interact-Merges-Signature-Packaging-Expands-Midwest-Distribution  Since 2005 signature was acquired by Interact Services and Signature Packaging Solutions is still growing packaging more products using prison labor . interact services do not hire convicted felons .

During the holiday season, inmates at Twin Rivers Corrections Unit in Washington worked on packaging Nintendo Game Boys and games such as Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong. The inmates worked under subcontractor, Signature Packaging Solutions and the inmates stated that the work was very dull and repetitive inmates were paid  their normal rate of 35 cents to $1.10 an hour.

Prisoners incarcerated are often found making human silhouette targets which are used in law enforcement training and Texas prisoners make duty belts, handcuff cases and prison-cell accessories for law enforcement officers.

The Technology Sector  Many tech companies such as IBM, Dell and Texas Instruments have turned to prison labor to make their circuit boards. While these companies do not work directly with prison labor they work with the suppliers that contract out to the prison labor force..  Back in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, unionized manufacturing and packaging jobs were great for the American middle class. But that was before so many of those jobs were outsourced to Pakistan, Bangladesh, China and other countries with ultra-low wages and terrible working conditions. Some corporations, however, have found a source of ultra-cheap labor right in the U.S.: inmates, whose pay can be as low as 35 cents an hour. The technology sector has been willing to make use of prison labor. Exmark (a Microsoft subcontractor) used prisoners in Washington State for shrinkwrapping Microsoft products (including mouses and software) in the 1990s, and in 2003, Dell used federal prisoners for recycling desktop computers.