| Federal Prison Industries (FPI) is a government-owned corporation that provides products and services using inmate labor. FPI sells only to federal agencies to avoid competing against private sector businesses and labor. The Alcatraz prison factory produced furniture, ashtrays, lamps, and brushes, as well as rubber mats for US Navy battleships. Inmates did laundry for military bases in the San Francisco area. They also made suits for inmates being released, and destitute veterans. Other jobs were part of routine prison operations. Inmates prepared food. They repaired shoes, roads and sidewalks, swept, waxed and polished concrete cell house floors, mowed lawns, tended shrubs, installed glass, and did electrical work, carpentry, and plumbing. Many assigned work activities involved vocational training. By the 1930s, federal prisons offered academic educational courses. Unlike other federal prisons, Alcatraz did not offer actual classroom instruction. Instead, inmates could select from a wide variety of accredited correspondence courses.
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