The prison system provides a workforce ideal for businesses of the US economy. When hiring inmates, employers don't have to worry about paying health care or unemployment insurance, vacation time, sick leave or overtime. There are no set standards for prison factories regarding the treatment or welfare of the workers and employers are free to hire, fire or reassign workers as they please. The inmates, on the other hand, are not able to respond to this treatment with a strike, grievance, or by threatening to leave and get a better job. In fact, inmates who refuse to work under these conditions risk losing "good time", time taken off of their sentence for good behavior, and can lose privileges in the library and for recreation. In one particular case, two inmates in Donovan Correction Facility in California filed a grievance against CMT Blues, a prison factory. They complained about unpaid 60-day training periods, unrealistic product quotas, and the unworkable environment. The consequence of this action left them without a job, 45 days in solitary confinement, and a transfer to another prison.

Willie Wisely, on labor conditions in a prison factory:

"Materials used in the manufacturing of furniture the prison industry sells to schools and hospitals are dangerous, flammable, and destructive to the environment... urethane foam is purchased by the PIA Furniture Factory... must be cut to size for use in chairs and couches. Cutting urethane foam in the unventilated shop poses a serious, potentially lethal, health threat to prisoners and civilian employees alike... the PIA ignores the danger, causing some employees to seek other jobs."