Source: The Times, UK

Prisons to offer telesales jobs

by Nicholas Rufford Home Affairs Editor

PRISONERS are to become telesales operators marketing products such as
furniture, home security equipment and airline tickets to the public
from their jail cells.

Richard Tilt, directorgeneral of the prison service, has given his
blessing to a pilot scheme for a telesales centre at Styal prison near
Manchester, where the female inmates have started telephone research
for outside clients. The scheme, the only one of its kind in Europe,
is an experiment for strategic plans by the Home Office to create
"factories within fences". Ministers believe that commercial work
prepares prisoners for rehabilitation and helps offset the 420aweek
cost of keeping each inmate in prison. Similar schemes in America
return hundreds of millions of dollars to state coffers. Prisoners,
some on death row, take airline bookings and make everything from jeans
to snow shoes.

Styal prison houses 269 women, ranging from murderers to young
offenders. Inmates follow a market research script to ask a series of
questions on behalf of businesses which pay their 9aweek wages.

Although critics argue that dangerous prisoners would have direct
contact with people who could become victims, the prison service says
the 10 inmates taking part in the scheme are carefully vetted.

A coded telephone system prevents them from knowing the number of the
person they are calling.

The Home Office said the scheme had the approval of Joyce Quin, the
prisons minister. "What we are trying to do is to get as many prisoners
as possible doing purposeful work," a spokesman said. "It is not like
Prisoner: Cell Block H; the women are polite and professional."

The prison service will not disclose clients' identities, because it
fears the publicity could discourage commercial interest. However, it
emerged this weekend that Manchester airport is considering using the
service for airline bookings.

Bill Murray, an adviser to the scheme, said: "The women are fully
trained and can do any type of telephone research, take any kind of
booking or sell any type of product."

Tilt, who inspected the 250,000 telesales centre at Styal before it was
brought into commercial use, said 10 jails in England and Wales were
being prepared as showpieces to expand the range of products and
services provided from within prisons. "There is no reason why
prisoners should not have to earn their keep like everyone else," he
said.

The Styal scheme, equipped with 12 desktop computers, was set up with
100,000 from Prison Enterprise Services, a Home Office agency based in
Croydon, south London, and 150,000 in grants from the European Union.

Askham Grange prison, near York, already has conference rooms that are
hired to commercial clients. Prisoners register visitors, serve
refreshments and escort conference delegates.

At Holloway, north London, the women inmates take in secretarial work
and repay part of their wages to the prison in "rent". Other schemes
have included one at Kirkham prison in Lancashire involving prisoners
sewing jeans called Gaolers slogan "Made with Conviction" and cheese
for pizzas at East Sutton Park in Kent.

Last year one in six of the 60,000 prisoners in England and Wales was
engaged in industrial or agricultural work. More than 1,000 are paid
"enhanced wages" of up to 30 a week, compared with the usual 7 prison
pay, and 120 earn full commercial wages on prerelease employment
schemes.

In total, the 135 prisons in England and Wales last year earned 34.5m
from industrial sales and 34m from sales of agricultural and
horticultural products, set against the 1.7 billion running cost of the
prison system. Some of the money is paid in wages, some to victims of
crime and some returned to the prisons.