On skimming through the SAP, something of wonder came up. Maybe some of the "old keys" can remember but has anyone EVER used services from UNICOR or NIB-NISH? The question came up, especially if a unit would actually procure prisoners from UNICOR to do work at a unit.
I don't know how they went about doing it, but up until Hurricane Katrina, Station Gulfport would have prisoners coming down weekly for anything such as: taking out trash, swabbing decks, mowing the lawn, weedeating, sweeping parking lot, etc.
Like I said, though, I don't know how they got the process rolling. I have only seen the prisoners a few times since Katrina for things such as a COC or groundbreaking where they helped to weedeat or clean up around the outside of the building.
As far as using prisoners if they are local inmates the jail has to be certified by the US Department of Justice in order to work on a federal installation.
UNICOR mostly provides services that can be trucked to you or things like IT services which can be done behind the wall. http://www.unicor.gov/
We were negotiating with UNICOR to have federal prisoners work at ATC way back in the last century (mid-1990s), but the CO decided he didn't want any prisoners working there. They were going to work in the warehouse and aviation supply and a few other jobs not covered by service contracts (like painting). If it worked out, they probably would have taken over some of the jobs done by the contractors.
