Toxic Sweatshops

"Toxic Sweatshops: How UNICOR Prison Recycling Harms Workers, Communities, the Environment, and the Recycling Industry" was released in October 2006. It is an important look into the world of the Prison Industrial Complex and the modern slavery that makes it a mult-milllion dollar a year business.

For the first time, prisoners speak out on deplorable health and safety conditions within electronics recycling factories run by UNICOR. UNICOR, also known as Federal Prison Industries, is a government-owned corporation operated under the Department of Justice that uses captive prison labor in a range of industries, including the dismantling of electronics. Leroy Smith, a former safety manager at Atwater Prison, blew the whistle on UNICOR's facility there and was named "Public Servant of the Year" by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel in September 2006.