Who knew? Dell Computers has been using prison labor in its recycling program. Now, follwoing complaints by environmental advocates, the company has promised to stop.

Dell, the world's largest seller of PC's, said it had canceled its contract with Unicor, a branch of the Federal Bureau of Prisons that employs prisoners for electronics recycling and other industries.

Last week, an environmental group in California released a report criticizing Dell's reliance on prison labor. The group, the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, said in its report that inmates who work at the prison recycling operation were not protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act and were paid from 20 cents to $1.26 an hour.

The organization's report, entitled "Corporate Strategies for Electronics Recycling: A Tale of Two Systems," commended Hewlett-Packard for using "state of the art" practices in cooperation with the commercial recycling industry.

While promising to halt the use of prison labor, Dell still defends it:

The company said that prisoners involved in the work program, which is entirely voluntary, have a far lower rate of recidivism.

That's the best they can offer as an excuse for paying $.20 an hour?

Update: The Rocky Mountain News carries an editorial Saturday, Don't Scrimp on Prison Labor. It has nothing to do with Dell, but with the Colorado legislature's budget-cutting move of reducing prisoner wages from $.85 a day to $.60 a day for jobs such as cooking, sewing uniforms, and building furniture. As a result, the inmate-cooks at the Sterling Correctional Center staged a walkout. They were punished with solitary confinement, where they remain.