Dell Ditches Prison Labor

Lynn Schenkman

Round Rock, Texas -- Dell Computer Corp. has announced it will stop using prison labor to recycle personal computer monitors and printers. Dell says within the next 30 to 60 days, it will drop the services of Washington, D.C.-based Federal Prison Industries, a federally owned company, which operates under the name Unicor.

Late last month, the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and the Computer Take Back Campaign, San Jose, Calif., published a report chastising Dell for using prison labor. In the same breath, the report extolled Hewlett Packard for what the groups considered progressive electronics recycling (e-cycling) practices. News sources report that Dell did not drop Unicor as a reaction to pressure from environmental groups. Resource Concepts, Dallas, and Image Microsystems, City of Commerce, Calif., will take over the recycling of Dell printers.