FPI Systems Furniture

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Federal Prison Industries, Inc.'s (UNICOR) production and sales of systems furniture to federal agencies. GAO noted that: (1) prison inmates currently perform some of the manufacturing on all system furniture products except mobile and fixed file components; (2) UNICOR annually employs 725 inmates for about 1,900 hours each for furniture production; (3) due to a lack of definitive procurement regulation criteria, UNICOR product prices do not have to be the lowest prices available or lower than market prices; and (4) the limited UNICOR product line may also contribute to higher costs for federal agencies.