But that isn't the news. The news is that on Wednesday the Army gave Unicor, the government-owned prison labor company, a new no-bid $20 million contract to make body armor. That's right, after Unicor's protective helmets were recalled last year because they failed ballistics testing.
We suspect that the prisoners' wages -- as low as 23 cents an hour -- just might affect the quality of their products.
The Army is apparently comfortable with ordering slave-labor-made vests because they're for Pakistani troops (if we were Pakistani soldiers we'd be pissed). The Army also seems to be comfortable with using prison labor when 13.7 million Americans are out of work.
We took a look at Unicor's 70+ "factory" locations. There's probably one near you. Take a look at a map here.
At least there's some manufacturing left in the U.S.
