USE OF PRISONERS for productive work simmers as an issue for unions.
The number of prisoners doing work -- like making gloves or furniture -- rose to about 80,000 in 1998, mostly in state prisons, from 76,500 in 1997, says the Correctional Industries Association in Baltimore. The AFL-CIO backs the idea of inmates working but wants it done "carefully." Low-wage or unpaid "prison inmates are just one more group being added to the ever-expanding list of sources for cheaper labor," says Joshua Miller, an economist for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Guards who are AFSCME members find busy prisoners easier to manage, but the AFL-CIO says the union is losing work like computer-data entry to inmates. The Federal Bureau of Prisons notes that Congress bars an adverse effect on any one industry by the 100 federal-prison factories.