Singapore outsourcing women prisoners from jail?
Wednesday August 24 2005 16:14 IST
AP
SINGAPORE: Women inmates at a Singapore prison are working 12-hour
shifts as telephone call-centre operators and telemarketers in a
state campaign to rehabilitate lawbreakers, an official said on
Wednesday.
"It's pretty much the same as a commercial call centre, except it's
behind bars," said Vincent Chan, a senior manager at the Singapore
Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises.
"It's our way of upgrading the old prisons' industries and
enhancing the inmates' employability," Chan said.
He said the call centre is a cubicle-filled room about the size of
a basketball court at the Changi women's prison and drug
rehabilitation centre.
The duties of the eight inmates working there include answering
questions about prepaid mobile phone cards and consumer products,
he said, adding that supervisors monitor the calls to make sure
they are limited to business.
The operators are trained to speak clearly and to soothe difficult
customers.
The call centre operates around the clock and has 10 clients,
including a telecommunications company, Chan said. Clients did not
want to be named due to concerns that links with a prison could
hurt their business.
Chan declined to say whether the prisoners are paid for their work,
or to give any other details about the programme's finances.