Work programs for Texas inmates go high-tech

Work programs for Texas inmates go high-tech


With stacks of broken computers towering toward the ceiling and intense white-clad technicians frowning over workbenches filled with the machines' electronic guts, this could be any high-tech repair shop in America. Or so you may think until rolls of concertina wire bristling from the walls remind you of where you are.
Welcome to Huntsville's Wynne Unit, home of one of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's two computer repair labs, where each month inmate workers fix or discard up to 250,000 pounds of malfunctioning equipment. In Texas, a state whose prison work programs are best known for agriculture and license plates, the computer shops represent the cutting edge of a factory system that produces everything from street signs to mattresses for state college dorms and soap for scrubbing jailhouse floors.

In the process, Texas Correctional Industries factories in 37 prisons provide job training for up to 5,200 inmates and help cut costs for cities, counties, schools and other tax-supported entities across the state. "This fits our overall mission to help offenders re-integrate," said C.F. Hazelwood, the TDCJ's director of manufacturing and logistics. "One of the best ways is to teach them how to work," he said, "to train and provide them with some sort of skill."

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