Prison Call Centres: It’s not just about making license plates any more.
If you work in a call centre you know that being tethered to a telephone for 8 hours a day can definitely it can feel like a prison sentence. You also know that outsourcing is nothing new. It’s fairly common for customers to call an 800-number and get someone who barely speaks English or has an accent so thick that it’s difficult to even know what’s being said. Now imagine calling in and hearing “Good afternoon, this is Snake. How can I help you?”
There’s a new outsourcing fad developing where companies are contracting federal prisons to man their customer service departments. These days instead of punching out license plates or making shoes, convicted felons take calls for large companies fielding inquiries which range anywhere from sales and service to answering questions about pickles.
Seem ridiculous? I think so too, but it’s really happening. as reported by NPR.org:
“Most of the centers handle orders for items the prisoners are making themselves and deal almost exclusively with the non-profits and government agencies that are allowed to buy their goods. But in a few cases, prisons have offered their call centers’ services to private companies on the outside who want to outsource their own departments. The companies say they would have sent the centers overseas if they hadn’t given the business to the prisons.”
And you thought outsourcing to India hurt our economy. Apparently Canadian inmates who work in such centres make a between $1.25 and $1.75 an hour [source]
I have a big enough problem calling a company to order my Widgets & Sprockets and having to give my credit card details to just some random Joe Blow who managed to make it though that company’s hiring process. Now I have to worry about giving my vitals to someone who might have been incarcerated for credit card fraud, identity theft, or even murder. That’s assuring.
Call centres like this exist all over the Canada and the USA. In 2001 a centre was opened at the Pittsburgh Institution, located near Kingston Ontario, and there are several institutions throughout the states offering the same services.
In 2003, Connections Magazine published an article which basically defended the existence of correctional institute call centres, and they have some very valid points:
“The CORCAN concept seems to be working. Along with the call centers, CORCAN is responsible for all prison employment programs, and has seen the recidivism rate drop and prisoner moral increase. CORCAN employs more than 5,000 offenders still in prison and 1,900 in communities. CORCAN claims that there was a 27.8% reduction in re-offences in 1996 in 52 paroled offenders who participated in CORCAN, compared to 19.2% one and a half years earlier.”
I still don’t know about this. The cheap labour would be nice for the contracting company, but I would very much hate to lose my job to a rapist serving a prison sentence, and I’m sure my customers feel the same.
Above image borrowed from USA Today without permission. Please don’t sue me!
