UNICOR Posted Record Sales. It Employs 995 Fewer Inmates to Make Them.
Summary
Federal Prison Industries booked $464.9 million in sales in fiscal 2025 — an all-time high, up 13% in two years — while the number of incarcerated workers it employs fell 9% over the same stretch, to 10,494. Pay tops out at $1.15 an hour. Another 25,000 people are on a waiting list for the job.
Follow the sales dollar
UNICOR's own public accounting of "every dollar in sales revenue" splits it three ways: 78 cents for materials and services bought from private-sector vendors, 18 cents for civilian staff salaries and operations, and 4 cents for the people actually making the product. Applied to the audited FY2025 sales total of $464.9 million — reported by the Department of Justice Inspector General in February 2026 — that split works out to roughly $362.6 million for suppliers, $83.7 million for operations, and $18.6 million split among the 10,494 people who worked the factory floor that year.
View data as table
| Materials & private-sector purchases | $362.6M | 78% of sales |
|---|---|---|
| Staff salaries & operations | $83.7M | 18% of sales |
| Inmate pay | $18.6M | 4% of sales, ~10,494 workers |
Divide that $18.6 million inmate-pay pool by the 10,494 people who earned it and the average comes to roughly $1,772 for the year — about $148 a month. That tracks with the pay scale BOP itself publishes: UNICOR jobs pay 23 cents to $1.15 an hour, depending on grade and seniority, before any deductions for restitution or fees. It is, by design, not a wage meant to support anyone outside prison — it is what the government pays for the labor that generates its supplier and operations budgets.
Record sales, shrinking workforce
The FY2025 sales figure isn't a one-year blip. It caps two years of steady growth: $410.9 million in FY2023, $423.7 million in FY2024, $464.9 million in FY2025 — a 13.1% increase, per the two most recent DOJ Inspector General audits. Over the identical span, the number of incarcerated workers UNICOR employed went the other way: 11,489 as of September 2023, down to 11,043 in 2024, down again to 10,494 in 2025 — a drop of 995 people, or 8.7%.
View data as table
| FY2023 | 11,489 | sales $410.9M — OIG Report 26-006 |
|---|---|---|
| FY2024 | 11,043 | sales $423.7M — OIG Report 26-028 |
| FY2025 | 10,494 | sales $464.9M — OIG Report 26-028 |
The finances tell the same story from a different angle. FPI ran a net loss of $3.99 million in FY2023 and $7.46 million in FY2022, per the FY2023 audit. By FY2024 it had swung to a $14.8 million profit, and it held there — $15.0 million — in FY2025. The corporation got smaller and more profitable at the same time, which is the least mysterious contraction in this dataset: fewer people, working the same equipment, generating more sales per person.
Meanwhile, demand for the jobs UNICOR is shedding hasn't moved. 's own figures put UNICOR's participation rate at 8% of work-eligible inmates, with 25,000 more on a waiting list for a job that, at its ceiling, pays $1.15 an hour. Congress's own First Step Act requires the Attorney General to report on getting 75% of eligible minimum- and low-risk offenders into a work program of at least 20 hours a week — a target UNICOR is nowhere close to reaching, and one it has been moving away from for three straight years.
The takeaway
- Sales grew 13% in two years. The workforce shrank 9%. FPI hit a record $464.9 million in FY2025 sales while employing 995 fewer incarcerated workers than it did in FY2023.
- Four cents of every sales dollar reaches the workers. The other 96 cents goes to private-sector suppliers (78) and civilian staff and operations (18) — a split itself publishes and applies without adjustment as sales climb.
- Profit came back the same years the workforce shrank. FPI posted net losses in FY2022 and FY2023, then $14.8–15.0 million in profit in FY2024 and FY2025 — after cutting nearly 1,000 jobs.
- 25,000 people are waiting for a job UNICOR isn't expanding. Only 8% of work-eligible inmates currently participate, far short of the First Step Act's 75% target.
Fiscal years run October–September. FY2025 figures are the most recent Inspector General-audited numbers available as of this writing; the FY2022 figures in the prior audit were previously restated after a material misstatement, disclosed in the 's December 2025 report.
Sources
- Office of the Inspector General, Audit of the Federal Prison Industries, Inc. Annual Financial Statements, Fiscal Year 2025 (Report 26-028, issued February 2026) — FY2025 sales ($464.9M), net income ($15.0M), and workforce (10,494) figures, plus FY2024 prior-year comparatives (sales $423.7M, net income $14.8M, workforce 11,043). oig.justice.gov
- Office of the Inspector General, Audit of the Federal Prison Industries, Inc. Annual Financial Statements, Fiscal Years 2023 and 2022 (Report 26-006, issued December 2025) — FY2023 sales ($410.9M), net loss ($4.0M), and workforce (11,489) figures, plus FY2022 comparatives (sales $400.6M, net loss $7.5M). oig.justice.gov
- Federal Bureau of Prisons, UNICOR Program Details — 's own published revenue distribution (78% materials/private-sector, 18% operations, 4% inmate pay), typical hourly pay range (23¢–$1.15), participation rate (8%), and waiting-list size (25,000). bop.gov
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Federal Prison Industries — trade name UNICOR — is a wholly owned government corporation that manufactures furniture, electronics, and vehicle fittings inside federal prisons, using incarcerated labor. It takes no taxpayer appropriation; every dollar it spends comes from what it sells, mostly to other federal agencies. In fiscal 2025 it sold more than it ever has. It also employed fewer of the people who made those sales possible than it has in at least three years.