A US-based manufacturer and supplier of furniture and equipment for K-12 schools. It uses prison labor and sells its products to prisons.
Virco Mfg. Corporation is a U.S.-based manufacturer and supplier of furniture and educational equipment. Headquartered at its Torrance, Calif. manufacturing and warehouse facility, the company has one other manufacturing and distribution center in Conway, Ark. It claims to be “America’s leading manufacturer and supplier of furniture and equipment for K-12 schools.”
Virco manufactures some of its products using prison labor. According to a 2018 Correctional Enterprises report, people incarcerated in Maryland have manufactured Virco chairs. The company is also a corporate member of the National Correctional Industries Association (NCIA), a private industry organization in charge of regulating the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP).
Virco also supplies furniture to prisons. For example, the company has provided chairs to the Delta Regional Unit prison in Arkansas and the Gadsden Correctional Facility in Florida. In 2015, it established a purchase order with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for “educations furnishing and fixtures” totaling $100,000, and between 2008 and 2013, it held three contracts with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide furniture to federal prisons.