http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/08/prisoners-call-centre-fired-staff by Shiv Malik, Wednesday 8 August 2012 11.37 BST Prisoners paid 3 a day to work at call centre that has fired other staff Becoming Green, which took on prisoners for 'work experience', says dismissals 'part of normal call centre environment' A business in Wales is bussing in inmates from an open prison 21 miles away and paying them just 3 a day to man its call centre, the Guardian can reveal. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) confirmed that dozens of prisoners from Prescoed prison in Monmouthshire, south Wales, had done "work experience" for at least two months at a rate of 40p an hour in the private company's telephone sales division in Cardiff. People working in the prisons sector described the scheme as "disgusting" and a "worrying development". After establishing an arrangement with minimum security HMP Prescoed late last year, roofing and environmental refitting company Becoming Green has taken on a staff of 23 prisoners. Currently 12 are being paid just 6% of the minimum wage. When contacted by the Guardian last month, that figure was 17 15% of the company's call centre staff. The company confirmed that since it started using prisoners, it had fired other workers. Former employees put the number at 17 since December. However, the firm said firings were part of the "normal call centre environment" and it had hired other staff in a recent expansion. Becoming Green said the category D prison had allowed the company to pay the prisoners just 3 a day for at least 40 working days but added that they could keep them at that pay level for much longer if they wanted. A company spokesman was unable to give the longest time a prisoner had been employed on token wages. The spokesman added that under the arrangement, they were only allowed to take a maximum of 20% of their total call centre workforce from the prison. The MoJ confirmed that there was no centralised limit on the length of training placements, which was down to prison governors to decide. The ministry said it had sought assurances from Becoming Green that prisoners were put into "genuinely vacant" posts. At the start of the year, the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, announced an expansion of mainly manufacturing work inside prisons. But against a background of disquiet from unions, he has continued to stress that prisoners would not be putting other people out of work. Clarke said last month that such a development would be a "a very serious downside" to the policy. In a response to questions from the Guardian, the MoJ said: "HMP Prescoed works closely with the company, the probation service, local authorities and community groups to ensure that any impact on the local workforce is minimised." A young former Becoming Green employee said that last November staff were told that prisoners, whose convictions are understood to range from murder to fraud and drugs offences, were going to start working at the company. "We got a message one day saying that ... [the company] was going to start hiring prisoners. "So I thought, 'Oh right, people who have been released.' And [my friend] said, 'No, no, no, people who are out on day release.' I thought, 'Can they do that?'" She said that just before Christmas, around 10 members of the call centre team were fired, and then a further seven were sacked until she left a number of months ago after feeling harassed to quit. "As they started bringing more and more in they started firing people ... They would have kept their jobs if it wasn't for the prison thing. "They'd passed their probation period, they'd been there for several months. They'd maintained the level they were that had been perfectly acceptable at that point. Then they [got] these people in for nearly free." She described the prisoners as "quite nice people" and said that some were very good workers, but added that the wage difference caused resentment. "Everyone was pretty miffed because at the end of the day there's no way you can compete with [3 a day]." A second female employee who has been on the dole for almost two months said she was also pushed out of Becoming Green despite meeting all of her performance targets. She also declined to be named, worrying about the consequences for job hunting. "I'm currently on jobseeker's allowance because I can't find another job because of all of this happening," she said. A former manager at Becoming Green claimed the company had been creating "reasons to justify dismissing people from the company so they could get more prison staff in". "The whole idea of what the company is doing is bringing in free labour for the business and relieving their employed staff of their responsibilities, because obviously it is more cost-effective for the business to have criminals working for them than paying a salary to each person. "I left because I didn't like the way the company was being run," the former manager said. "If people are rubbish in their jobs then get rid of them, I understand that. "But if people are coming in every day, and are generating a lot of revenue and the next thing you know is their jobs are on the line, there's no reason why these people should have been fired. I don't think it is right, just to save a few a quid. These people have bills to pay." The company has itself confirmed that staff had been fired since prisoners were taken on in November but countered that this was part of the normal attrition rate in a demanding businesses where "targets had to be met". Nicola Vaughan, senior manager at Becoming Green, said that there had been "performance issues" with staff who had been fired. "There have been a few people who have been dismissed for various reasons but if you are trying to imply that we have replaced those people with prisoners then that is far wrong," Vaughan said. "I think perhaps the people you have spoken to are a little bit disgruntled At the end of the day the contact centre industry has a very, very high turnover it's tough." In January, Clarke laid out plans to double the numbers of those working inside prisons to 20,000 in less than 10 years. However, while convicts working inside prison manufacturing goods have been doing such work for many years, prison campaigners said that working at a 3 a day training rate for private businesses for a minimum of eight weeks outside of prison walls was a new phenomenon. "This situation, I haven't heard of before," said Andrew Neilson, from the Howard League for Penal Reform. "We do welcome these opportunities [for prisoners to work] but it should be on the same basis as anyone else in the community. "We don't want the issue of prisoners on day release being employed becoming one that divides people and effectively people are turned against those prisoners because they're seen to be taking people's jobs. That's not what should be happening." Chris Bath, executive director of reformed offenders' charity Unlock, said he had never heard of such a practice where prisoners were spending so long in the private sector doing work experience on prison wages, and called the move a "worrying development". Steve Gillan, general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, said that for any company to rely on cheap labour of prisoners was "immoral and disgusting". "The association wants to see prisoners working and leading law-abiding lives but not at the expense of other workers being sacked or laid off to facilitate it. "Some employers must be rubbing their hands and the shareholders laughing all the way to the bank," Gillan said. "The ministers must be held to account if the factual position is this company has sacked workers to employ prisoners The general public will be outraged if this proves to be widespread and proper scrutiny of contracts needs to be made public to ensure public confidence." The MoJ said that prisoners at the company who were being employed at above minimum wage were paying 40% of their salary into the victims' fund. Three of the prisoner employees were understood to be managers at the company. Speaking about the expansion of prison work from 10,000 to 20,000 prisoners over the next decade, Clarke told the BBC last month: "It would be a very serious downside if we started replacing job opportunities for law-abiding people, and we've been conscious of that all the way through. "Although we don't pay the prisoners the minimum wage, normally you can't start undercutting British businesses outside." He added that the CBI was "totally supportive" of the work initiatives. However, Clarke has not addressed the situation in open prisons, where inmates can still have months left on their sentences but businesses can now pay them little more than a token wage for their labour. A Prison Service spokesman said: "We want more prisoners to undertake challenging work, within the discipline of regular working hours, which will help them develop the skills they need to gain employment, reform, and turn away from crime." The spokesman added that prison work "helps to reduce the chance of re-offending by setting up appropriate employment and rehabilitation work in the community". In a statement, Becoming Green said: "Corporations should have a social responsibility to help society. It feels that if they work with this attitude and behaviour it will help make a better society for all." The company added that this kind of work would "enable [prisoners] to resettle and integrate back into society and not feel the need to re-offend. By working, prisoners can repay the victims of crime rather than be unproductive in prison and by working potentially turn their lives around."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA a publicly traded company bigger than Walmart doing what they do best - having the most amount of employees (plenty being prisoners). I don't blame them (figure of speech). Business is business after all. Moral? That is debatable. Prisoners need a wage too! :lol:
If only the could come up with stupid little laws that a citizen through everyday life could not help but break and then incarcerate the whole population... would work wonders for the economy :|
JulieW, yes. Getting fined per day whilst in prison, only to be released and sent back in cause you can't afford the exorbitant amount. Rinse and repeat.
What kind of sensitive customer data are these convicts being allowed to access? Being a minimum security prison, its not unlikely that a few con artists, scammers etc are in the prison population, and The Systems sets them up with inside access to genuine personal information. Even allowing them to refine their over-the-phone scamming techniques. Sheer Effing Genius.
Don't understand why you are upset. It is not like the criminals (some being in on remand and still not sentenced/trialed) are any better or worse than the population on the outside of the walls. I got too many examples. The one will suffice; Banks. Shawshank Redemption was not based on a true story, even though a great movie. Every time you go to any KFC or Hungry Jacks in Australia you are sticking a spoon, fork and knife that has been packed, by hand (no gloves), by inmates. True, this is not 'sensitive data', but this is well and truly sensitive enough to stir more spirits then some few capable inmates competent enough, whilst avoiding detection from (assumed) wardens, to use the data collected for fraudulent purposes. Of course there is the one or two inmates who may use the information for malicious intentions, but I do not doubt the same risk can be found outside of the walls. Too many times do I observe incapable fkn recreational junkies and alcoholics in positions of power here in Australia. Oh, but that's right; drinking to get drunk is not considered an alcoholic trait, so long as you only do it after work each day or once per week. Hahahahaha. Your funny. Back to ebay I go.
Here for example: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...on-leviathan/2012/07/27/gJQAAsRnEX_story.html
^^^ Yep. Every person in prison must be an axe murderer! Cause, nobody goes to prison unless they are one. Who the hell is Nelson Mandella? Nah, he was an axe murder. I don't believe you! Him having access to my personal data? The worst thing on Earth. Why? Well, cause he is in prison, and to be in prison indicates you is an axe murderer. I fkn told you. /End example. Okay, now I need snooze. Thanks for chit chats and rants ppl. ltrz.
Ummm so when will they be hiring prisoners to work in banking, internet/telecoms, government call centres? I mean I understand I'm probably being a bit prejudicial of people trying to reform back into society but I don't like the idea of ex/convicts having full access to my private information.... :|
The scary thing is that the performance measures of government agencies essentially have nothing to do with making citizens lives better or more free. As they have no objective way of measuring if they are actually providing a valuable/useful good or service the natural tendency is always towards building bigger internal fiefdoms and continual addition of random regulations and laws that eat away at our freedoms. Did you know that it is now illegal in NSW to release (or cause to be released) 20 lighter than air balloons (i.e. helium balloons)? The worst thing is that the charge can be enforced even if the prosecutor only believed that you did! There's no objective proof required. Hence, you can still be charged even if you deliberately only inflate 18 at a time when you are giving away free balloons to the kiddies at the local show to ensure that - in the event the tether breaks - you released less than 20.
It seems you skipped your morning cuppa. Bit slow. Nonetheless, introverts and exoskeletons - we are all different... Analogies, examples and sarcasm from my prior posts went over your head. Let me give another: My first time in prison was for unpaid bicycle (pushbike) helmet fines (before Amnesty Int. on Fines introduced in Australia). I was fortunate enough to also receive a few convictions for those too! Now, how are you, a public citizen that receives fines for disobeying road signs et cetera, any better or qualified than someone like me? Just because I was convicted and sentenced for fines does not stipulate someone like yourself whom has not been convicted and sentenced as being any more trustworthy. Did you know most crimes in society go unreported and unsolved, as in 9 out of 10 crimes are unreported and unsolved. You only ever know or hear of the 1 out of 10. This then implies many citizens that have not been convicted and sentenced are just as bad as the ones whom have been. Pride & Prejudice. Love the double standards. .
Steal $1000 go to jail, steal $10billion get a promotion or an offer of a government job. The real crims wear suits
