Whole Foods to Stop Selling Goods Made by Inmates
September 30 2015 - 1:30PM
Dow Jones News
Whole Foods Market Inc. will stop selling products made using a
prison labor program after a protest at one of its stores in
Texas.
The company said the products should be out of its stores by
April 2016, if not sooner. Whole Foods said it has sold tilapia,
trout and goat cheese produced through a Colorado inmate program at
some stores since at least 2011.
Michael Silverman, a Whole Foods spokesman, said the company had
sourced the products because the program was a way to "help people
get back on their feet and eventually become contributing members
of society."
But he said the company decided to end the practice because some
customers were uncomfortable with it.
The tilapia, trout and cheese in question come through Colorado
Correctional Industries, a division of Colorado's department of
corrections. On its website, CCI says its mission is to train
inmates with skills and work ethics that help them secure
employment after release.
Dennis Dunsmoor, director of the program, said the program
doesn't provide goods directly to Whole Foods, but that its
partners do. He said inmates who volunteer for the program are paid
74 cents to $4 a day, and are eligible for performance bonuses as
well.
Inmate work is typically used for government needs, such as the
production of license plates or office furniture for state
agencies, said Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing
Project, and criminal justice research and advocacy group. But he
said several states also have programs where prisons contract with
private companies.
Mauer said the issue is complicated; the programs can benefit
inmates by giving them productive work and training in useful
skills, but there is potential for exploitation, since companies
typically pay far less for prison labor than they otherwise
would.
"Are companies doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, or
because it's cheap labor?" Mauer said.
In the best case scenario, he said companies would pay
prevailing wages to inmates in such programs.
Michael Allen, a prison reform advocate, said Whole Foods
informed him of its change in policy after he organized a protest
at one of the company's stores in Houston this past weekend. Whole
Foods is based in Austin, Texas. Although other companies sell
products made by inmates, Allen said he thought it was hypocritical
of Whole Foods to do so, given the image it tries to cultivate.
"They say they care about the community, but they're enhancing
their profit off of poor people," Allen said, noting the pay that
inmates receive for such work.
Representatives for Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy and Quixotic
Farming, which say on their websites that they work with Colorado
Correctional Industries, weren't immediately available for comment.
Haystack sells goat cheese and Quixotic sells tilapia.
In its 2014 annual report, Colorado Correctional Industries said
it employed more than 1,800 inmates, with the goal of doubling the
program over the next decade. It said more than 80% of inmates with
at least six months experience remain out of jail a year after
release, compared with the national average of 62%.
Whole Foods' sourcing of products made through inmate labor has
been covered in publications including Fortune, Dissent magazine
and Vice.
Copyright 2015 Associated Press
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 30, 2015 13:15 ET (17:15 GMT)
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