The prisoners are paid $2 an hour and the company charges $9 for the work. Picture: Thinkstock Source: Supplied
PRISONS are paying inmates $2 an hour to operate call centres from behind bars to prevent the work going offshore and to improve job skills.
Duties include database cleansing, outbound marketing and call reminders.
NSW Corrective Services Industries says the program poses no security threat and only female prisoners who had shown ''excellent behaviour'' are trained as call operators.
Thirty inmates, whose crimes include fraud and stealing, manage the call centre at the Dillwynia jail, near Windsor.
CSI, which made a profit of $24 million in the past financial year, also uses prison workers to clean headsets for Qantas and repair appliances for Breville.
CSI executive director Steve Thorpe said yesterday prisoners worked for about $2 an hour, but the company charged clients $9 an hour, due to rules banning jails from competing unfairly with rival firms.
Murderers ''may or may not'' be able to work in the call centre, he said, depending on when they committed the crime and whether they had been rehabilitated in custody.
''You don’t want people who've committed horrendous crimes talking to the public,'' Mr Thorpe said.
''You could have a murderer and that might have happened many, many, many years ago and the issue of violent behaviour has been addressed in prison.''
He said prison workers could only dial the numbers assigned to them and worked under tight supervision.
''There are no credit cards, no money, no selling,'' he said.
Dr Catriona Wallace, director of Fifth Quadrant, says her firm had advised and supported the Department of Corrective Services for three years.
''For many of these girls who have experienced extreme abuse and dysfunction in their young lives just the thought that someone on the outside will give them a chance at employment is monumental to them.
''Most of these women are young, between 18 and 30, and most of them have children on the outside,'' she says on her company website.
Mr Thorpe said jail labour was ''not as efficient as in the real world'', as prisoners did not work eight hours a day.
''You've got urine analysis that must take place, search days, or violence can occur and you have to lock everything down,'' he said.
Breville Australia general manager Jeremy Sargeant yesterday said prisoners did product ''fault analysis'' and ''minor refurbishment''.
Mr Thorpe said former clients included cable maker CommScope, Cumberland Newspapers, and T-shirt maker Bilprau.
CSI targets companies considering sending work offshore.
CELL-PHONE CALL CENTRE:
- Run by NSW Government-owned Corrective Services Industries
- Based at Dillwynia jail, west of Sydney
- Employs 150 women inmates each year
- Prisoners are paid $2 an hour
- Company charges clients $9 an hour
- Provides "a quality endorsed total service solution in telemarketing"
- CSI turned over $72m in sales last financial year
- Company made $24m profit
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