Who May Purchase from UNICOR?
When Federal Prison Industries (FPI or trade name UNICOR) was established as a federal government corporation, Congress wished to minimize the impact on private industry. For the most part, only Federal government entities may purchase from UNICOR. Over the years this has been extended to also include:
- Federal contractors purchasing for a Federal government end customer.
- Non-Federal entities may use UNICOR contract manufacturing to reshore products that are currently, or would otherwise be, manufactured or assembled outside the United States.
- Non-Federal entities may use UNICOR to manufacture products under our Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP) authority.
- Non-Federal entities may purchase UNICOR services.
- Anyone may donate electronics recyclables to UNICOR.
- Non-Federal entities can purchase agricultural commodities from UNICOR.
Most recently, the First Step Act authorized UNICOR to sell to:
- Public entities for use in penal or correctional institutions.
- Public entities for use in disaster relief or emergency response.
- The District of Columbia government, and
- Any Non-Profit organization described in subsection (c)(3), (c)(4), or (d) of section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 that is exempt for taxation under section 501 (a) of such code (except that these nonprofit organizations may not purchase office furniture under this authority.)
Who may NOT buy from UNICOR?
- Federal employees and Federal contractors purchasing for their own use.
- Colleges and Universities (except where purchase is made with Federal funding) – e.g. the ROTC department may buy furniture from UNICOR with their DoD funds and the Chemistry department could if it is paid for by a government grant but neither could purchase from UNICOR using their regular school funds or personal credit cards.
- Private Citizens - even if you purchased a used UNICOR product from an after-market source (e.g. eBay, government surplus, flea market, etc.)
If you have any questions about your authorization to purchase from UNICOR, please contact us.