Mandatory Talk

On a related note, resources like Gomez's program might provide a different slant on stories such as the one that appeared on the front page of the Austin American-Statesman's business section on Dec. 10, titled "Prison labor is making a comeback."

The story, a combination of Associated Press wire service material and the work of staff writer Earl Golz, gushed over how Texas' prison inmates only provide services and products for other state government institutions, especially "necessity items" for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDJC) itself.

The only problem with that statement is that -- as the article admits -- it isn't true. Almost as an aside, one paragraph mentions the Wackenhut-run parole pre-release facility in Lockhart which paid workers minimum wage to grind lenses for an eyeglass company. (The article neglected to mention that it also produced computer parts for Dell.) TDJC spokesman Glen Castlebury, when contacted by the Chronicle, tried to minimize the importance of that program by pointing out that it employs 200 convicts out of 8,000 prison laborers in the public TDJC system -- and that logic seems to guide the Statesman article.

A better angle to take on this story would be to ask why any prisoners are cheaply producing profits for corporations that can certainly afford to hire real labor at real wages and provide them with benefits. The Statesman's claim that "The lens work stirred up protests from organized labor that inmates were replacing private citizens in jobs, but the issue subsided after no such private industry could be found in the Lockhart area" is pretty weak. Who says that the company could only obtain lenses from the Lockhart area?

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KOOP Hearing

The first hearing in the KOOP radio lawsuit (see Dec. 18 "Naked City"), which was scheduled for last Monday, has been rescheduled for 9am Monday, Jan. 4, at the Travis Co. Courthouse.