Warren Burger: An Appreciation

Chief Justice Burger's personal dedication to improving America's correctional systems is a hallmark for everyone in the corrections profession. He advocated the intense use of industry programs in our Nation's prisons to combat and alleviate inmate idleness, while preparing inmates for productive careers upon release. Chief Justice Burger was a tireless advocate of prison industries. His service as co-chairman of the National Prison Industries Task Force transformed work and rehabilitation programs for inmates into meaningful and effective resources. Chief Justice Burger was convinced that the keys to successful correctional programs were "education, job training, and employment."

His initial efforts to promote inmate work programs through the Task Force spearheaded a series of conferences, seminars, and studies on the subject. Chief Justice Burger was a great communicator, extolling the merits of "factories with fences." He was able to gain public support and sentiment for prison industry programs by educating the public. He understood the need to balance the interests of private sector businesses and industry with correctional goals. He had an inherent understanding that if we promoted the concept of work ethics in inmates, it would reduce recidivism.

We will long cherish the legacy of Chief Justice Burger's commitment to "factories with fences" and Federal Prison Industries. It is in recognition of that spirit that we proudly dedicate this publication to him.

Kathleen M. Hawk
Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons
CEO, Federal Prison Industries

Joseph M. Aragon
Chairman, Board of Directors
Federal Prison Industries

Dedication

Warren Burger's Quest for "Factories with Fences"

by Warren I. Cikins

On June 25, 1995, a great light went out: U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger passed away at the age of 87. In the wake of his death, much has been written about Chief Justice Burger's commitment to strengthening the criminal justice system and to ensuring the punishment of the wrong-doer, but that's only part of the picture. Warren Burger believed in swift, certain punishment, but he also believed in giving offenders an opportunity to reform themselves. "When society places a person behind walls and bars," he said in 1981, "it has an obligation - a moral obligation - to do whatever can reasonably be done to change that person before he or she goes back into the stream of society." While there are many ways to provide inmates with opportunities for change - through such means as drug treatment, education, recreation, and religious services - clearly one of the most important is prison industries. And Warren Burger was one of prison industries' most passionate supporters.

Keeping inmates productively occupied was a subject in which Chief Justice Burger was always interested. Even as a young man, Burger objected to the mere "warehousing" of prisoners - something he observed during a tour of a Minnesota prison while he was a Boy Scout. During his later years on the Federal bench and continuing after his retirement from the Supreme Court, he became a staunch proponent of prison industries programs as a cost effective way to occupy inmates' time and teach them meaningful job skills. During a 1981 speech to the Lincoln, Nebraska, Bar Association, he speculated on the future of corrections, asking "more warehouses or factories with fences?"

During the late 1970's and early 1980's, many public policymakers began questioning the value of prison programs - including prison industries - because they did not seem to reduce inmate recidivism as much as their supporters had hoped. This, however, was not reason enough for Burger to give up. "The fact that [rehabilitating offenders] is far more difficult than we had thought," he explained," is the very reason we must consider changes and enlarge our efforts."

In the early 1980's, at Chief Justice Burger's urging, George Washington University President Lloyd Elliott agreed to create a Center on Innovations in Corrections. An advisory board of senior Government officials and representatives of the private sector was assembled to formulate a range of job training projects to be implemented at the State level.

The concept of having an advisory board grew into the creation of a National Task Force on Prison Industries. Prison industries have always been controversial. Prison managers generally support prison industries because they keep inmates productively occupied and teach them job skills. Industry and labor leaders generally oppose prison industries, arguing that they will displace private sector business and laborers. The Task Force - which included senior officials from all three branches of Government, as well as prominent business leaders and distinguished criminologists - tried to find some middle ground. It met several times at the Supreme Court to help create a climate of acceptance for prison industries as a limited but essential component of the criminal justice system.

A high-water mark in the Burger effort to stimulate an informed debate about the appropriate role of prison industries in society was the Conference at Wingspread (a conference center in Racine, Wisconsin) in February 1985. Almost 100 participants divided into 11 committees to study the following areas related to prison industries: laws, executive orders, and regulations; procurement; marketing; inmate compensation; staff training; offender input; education, inmate training and job placement; business and labor concerns; industries management; research and evaluation; media and public relations. Priority was placed on controlling prison costs and establishing programs that would help inmates defray some of the costs of incarceration. Private industry representatives, corrections administrators, legislators, university personnel, and concerned citizens chaired or reported on these committees' activities.

When Chief Justice Burger retired from the Supreme Court in 1986 to give full-time attention to his job as chairman of the Commission for the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, he put his involvement in prison industries on the back burner. But by the early 1990's, he returned to the fray. When a congressman introduced an amendment to the 1990 crime bill to sharply restrict Federal Prison Industries in four key product areas (furniture, textiles, apparel, and footwear), Chief Justice Burger went into action. As the Washington Post reported, "Burger fired off letters to House and Senate conferees labeling it an 'astonishing proposal' that would be 'an incredible setback to one of the most enlightened aspects of the Federal prison system'." Perhaps inspired by Burger's defense of FPI, Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) told his colleagues that he would not accept the anti-FPI amendment, and that pronouncement brought the matter to an end. The Post quoted Burger as saying, "My position on this is the most conservative one you can imagine. If you can take an individual and train him so he can do something a little more useful than stamping license plates, he's a little less likely to go back [into prison]. This isn't for the benefit of the criminal community. It's for the benefit of you and me."

Later in the 90's, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, working closely with the Brookings Institution, began an effort to find common ground on the issue of Federal Prison Industries among: (1) private sector industries in furniture, textiles, electronics, etc.; (2) the AFL-CIO; and (3) the Federal Government. At the same time, Chief Justice Burger revived the Prison Industries Task Force. Former Attorney General Griffin Bell agreed to serve as chairman and was later succeeded by Judge William Webster, the former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency. Chief Justice Burger and Attorney General Janet Reno addressed the Task Force Meeting on January 12, 1994. Mr. Burger cited the Scandinavian governments as role models in recognizing that almost all incarcerated individuals eventually return to society and should be made literate and trained in meaningful jobs. He emphasized that "the U.S. needs to focus on education, training, and work, to try to make offenders better people than when they entered the system."

Chief Justice Warren Burger continued to promote prison industries until the end of his life. He made speeches, appeared on television, and provided forewords for books and tapes encouraging greater acceptance of what he called "factories with fences." It was my great honor to have assisted him in many of these undertakings. I saw a quality of spirituality in him in this quest for inmate rehabilitation that is in short supply at this time. He will be sorely missed by prison officials, inmates, victims of crime, and the general public at large - especially in an era of strong punishment (which he advocated) without the countervailing willingness to welcome home a reformed prodigal son. He felt strongly about the saying attributed to Dostoyevsky that "a civilization will be judged by how it treats its wrongdoers." To be tough on crime does not mean "throwing away the key." Warren Earl Burger will long be remembered for making us face that fact and act accordingly.

In honor of his commitment to the rehabilitative value of prison work programs, this volume on the history of Federal Prison Industries is dedicated to the late Warren E. Burger.

Mr. Cikins is a leading consultant on criminal justice issues and Vice Chairman of the National Committee on Community Corrections. He served with the Brookings Institution from 1975 to 1993.