Crime - and rehabilitation !

The news that female prisoners - some of whom have been convicted of murder - are working in a prison call centre to gather information to update the state's data base is causing uproar.   The fact that they can earn as much as twenty-five dollars a week for these services seems to add to that indignation.

Our prison system is supposed to be big on rehabilitating those who have offended and preparing them for their eventual return to society, and this takes many forms.    We seek to improve the educational level of prisoners to fit them into the future work force and the system provides incentives for good behaviour while behind bars.  Prisoners are graded into various security levels and these give more personal freedoms as their time of release nears.

The women's prison at Windsor selects up to twenty-five prisoners to serve in  it's call centre and they are tasked with phoning schools, hospitals and various government agencies to gather the information that forms the state government data base.   They do not identify themselves as prison inmates when they call and the information they gather is freely available within the rules and regulations of the departments called.   These women are gaining a skill and at the same time delivering an outcome that serves to defray the cost of maintaining a prison system.

Many people critical of prison rehabilitation cite the poor prospects that many prisoners face on release. In the past, some walked out the prison gate with about the price of a bus fare in their pocket.   Those without family or friends to offer support faced an impossible task - and inevitably some found themselves back in prison on destitution grounds.   Earning twenty-five dollars a week is a mere fraction of the average wage, but it at least provides a buffer between the gap to the next dole cheque when a released prisoner has to survive in a now unfamiliar world.

Work within the prison system has been with us for a very long time.   Prisoners make the number plates for our cars, and prison farms are a low security option that relaxes security and at the same time provides some of the food that supports the whole gambit of government services.  In our computerized world, it is inevitable that learning new skills advance beyond mere physical labour.

Hopefully, the rehabilitation people will not lose their nerve and shut down this call centre option.  The opposition it has engendered is a knee jerk reaction.   There is absolutely no valid reason why prisoners can not perform this function - and if we are to return to the criteria of the past - years of progress will be lost !