Utah Correctional Industries (UCI) is Utah's prison industries program. Under the direction of the UCI Advisory Board and the Utah Department of Corrections, UCI operates productive enterprises utilizing inmate labor to benefit tax-supported entities. UCI is a self-supporting program, deriving its revenues solely from the sales of products and services to mostly other public entities.
During the 2015 General Session, the Legislature appropriated for Fiscal Year 2016, $28,251,100 from all sources for Utah Correctional Industries. This is a 3 percent increase from Fiscal Year 2015 revised estimated amounts from all sources.
Part of the responsibility of Corrections is to rehabilitate offenders which includes making the productive members of society upon release. Correctional Industries helps to develop skills for inmates to this end.
The Governor's Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) reported that "UCI, in cooperation with the Governor's Office of Management and Budget and Novaces Inc., has applied operational excellence tools, a focused value stream analysis, and capacity planning to increase production capability in the furniture manufacturing process. After reviewing the flow of work, it was determined that the constraint or bottleneck in the process was furniture sanding. The capacity for that particular step in the furniture manufacturing process has been calculated at 80 units per day and work is now released into the process at no more than 80% of sanding capacity. This 'choke and release of work' created a stabilized flow that resulted in:
- eliable completion dates are now available for the customer
- The ability to track the production status of each piece of furniture
- Furniture production capacity has doubled
- Sales for June 2014 were the highest ever at $523,248 as compared to $243,931 in June 2013 and $234,298 in June 2012
- Job opportunities for inmates have increased from 54 to a future state of 75 to 80
- A production baseline has been established that can be continuously improved
The mission of the division is to provide work experience and training for inmates to assist in increasing their ability to be self-supporting upon release from prison and parole.
UCI enterprises include: furniture manufacturing, seating manufacturing, license plate manufacturing, sign manufacturing, printing, computer refurbishing, data entry, microfilming, community work crews, asbestos abatement, commercial sewing, meat and milk processing, electronic recycling, waste recycling, commissary services, roofing, and construction.
The program helps the department manage offenders in the most cost effective way and assists in providing for a safe and secure prison while helping offenders prepare to lead crime free lives.
Funding for the Utah Correctional Industries is entirely from Dedicated Credits Revenue.
COBI contains unaudited data as presented to the Legislature by state agencies at the time of publication. For audited financial data see the State of Utah's Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports.