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WNYT-TV
Inmates at Greene Correctional Institution in Coxsackie, N.Y., staff a state Department of Motor Vehicles call center.
When you call a company or government agency for help, there's a good chance the person on the other end of the line is a prison inmate.
The federal government calls it "the best-kept secret in outsourcing" — providing inmates to staff call centers and other services in both the private and public sectors.
The U.S. government, through a 75-year-old program called Federal Prison Industries, makes about $750 million a year providing prison labor, federal records show. The great majority of those contracts are with other federal agencies for services as diverse as laundry, construction, data conversion and manufacture of emergency equipment.
But the program also markets itself to businesses under a different name, Unicor, providing commercial market and product-related services. Unicor made about $10 million from "other agencies and customers" in the first six months of fiscal year 2011 (the most recent period for which official figures are available), according to an msnbc.com analysis of its sales records.
The Justice Department and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons don't break down which companies they do business with. But Unicor said inmates provide private call center service, including data review and sales lead generation, for "some of the top companies in America" under a federal mandate to help companies repatriate jobs they have outsourced overseas.
In a fact sheet, Unicor asserts that prisoners in the program are less likely to re-offend and are better trained for full-time work upon release. All revenue goes back into the program, which "operates at no cost to the taxpayer," it says.
The idea has filtered down to some of the states, among them Georgia, Arizona and New York.
When New York residents call the Department of Motor Vehicles, for example, they might get an inmate at Greene Correctional Institution in Coxsackie, near Albany, or at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women near White Plains, on the border with Connecticut.
"Obviously, it saves taxpayer dollars," Brian Fischer, commissioner of the state Corrections and Community Supervision Department, told NBC station WNYT of Albany. "Number two, it provides what we call a transferable skill."
Besides saving the state money, said Elizabeth Glazer, the state's deputy secretary for public safety, the program is "an investment in our state's overall safety."
"When we help offenders build the workforce skills necessary to find viable employment after incarceration, we lessen the chances they will reoffend and end up back in the state's prison system," she said.
The corrections department acknowledged that callers aren't told they're talking to a state prisoner. But they stressed that callers are protected — no personal information is displayed to the prisoners, who don't have access to computers, officials said.
In the private sector, states usually partner with business-to-business firms to run the services — the companies provide the equipment and facilities, and the state provides the labor. One such firm is Televerde, a Phoenix company that partners with the Arizona prison system to provide marketing services for major companies that have included Hitachi and Microsoft.
In a marketing paper, Microsoft says companies like Televerde "can reduce the burden on corporate marketing and local marketing teams can have more meaningful interactions with their customers." (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC News.)
For inmates, the appeal isn't the pay, which can be as low as 50 cents an hour. It's the training and the opportunity: "A lot of times, we need to feel like we are appreciated, and it builds self-esteem," John Howard of Brooklyn, N.Y., an inmate at Greene, told WNYT.
"It allows me the opportunity to speak to different people of different nationalities, regardless of what ethnicity, and it makes me feel like 'Wow, I can do better,'" he said.
Read the original story at WNYT.com
But Danny Donohue president of the New York Civil Service Employees Association, criticized the program for prioritizing marketable skills for prisoners over providing jobs to "law-abiding citizens."
It's "a bad idea generally and even worse considering the current economy," Donohue said.
By M. Alex Johnson of msnbc.com and Bill Lambdin of WNYT-TV in Albany, N.Y. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
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Not only do they make New York's license plates, they sale them too! I probably have talked to one or two of them. It seems like they are probably the nicer people you talk to. Thye are ones who are nasty and hateful when it comes to accounting or other questions about accounts. Ot it could be something like a computer problem, and they are nice to help you and if they don't know, they will get someone who does know.
folks, folks - get real, the cost to taxpayers to house, feed, etc prisoners is astronomical - if they can pay some of that back and get a transferable job skill, I'm for it. I'd also like to see minimum security individuals in the fields and orchards, paying their "debt to society" in a meaningful way and keeping the undocumented that side of the border. Of course, of course there would be meaningful comforts, including healthy meals and water and snacks etc - and of course all the while letting them know in no uncertain terms that their work was meaningful and worthwhile - bottom line - keep the work here.
Of course a Union Leader would say that and union workers would agree with him - IMHO, the time for unions is long past - we have local, state and federal regulations in place that we did not 60 years ago - time for them to stand aside.
Very few of these supposed regulations protect workers from a vindictive employer, or from an employer that is more concerned with profit than with actually taking care of their workers. Having been a member of one union and a steward in another, as well as having been in corporate management in a predominantly union shop, there are a great many things that unions do that go unnoticed if one only reads the anti-union talking points presented by certain media outlets.
In fact, if one looks at history, when unions were at their strongest, income disparity was at its lowest in recent memory. As we have had a weakening of unions, so too have we increased income disparity and seen vast outsourcing of jobs all in the pursuit of corporate profit and higher executive compensations rather than a strong, stable economy with living wages for our citizens. Remember, profit means nothing if you don't have enough people to buy your product with sufficient income to do so.
Union bashing is meaningless. We need stronger unions, less combative management, and a focus on real employment, rather than either simply wage and benefit increases/decreases or finding ways to stick it to the proverbial little guy (read as worker) so an executive can have a third yacht and fifth mansion to go along with their golden parachute.
building self esteem = reduced rate of recidivism. earning wage/skills=self sufficiency upon exit from incarceration. treating people well = modeling for how to treat others. if you ground your kid and don't give him/her tools for healthy replacement behaviou, what has been accomplished? regarding our corporate gov't:absolutely.even farther, cia/fbi intentionally contribute to addiction and support thereof which is why a lot of folks are incarcerated. cia/fbi are cartel with badges using people for personal gain...watch a kid w/ low self esteem try to gain power with self destructive behavior so our corporate gov't can get cheap labor and make billions in their pocket because they interface with other countries and our own for that very purpose. this too shall pass...let's face it...when booze became legal crime/murder went down. same concept. incarceration/military=same:using human life for personal gain. all a form of genocide.(with all due respect to military whom i know have honorable intentions serving...i was one) the times they are a changin' folks...and with it, equanimity for all living beings, truly with regard for all race,creed,culture...true humanity. feed the light,feed love into all things and feel/watch the love grow...and this aint hippie crap, this is heaven on earth in the making...and its real and its happening now!!! here's a tiny example of our current corporate govt: poison toothpaste from china distribution: prisons and homeless shelters for singles and families. poison peanut butter in food boxes. here's more: intentional climate change for genocide. intentional chemical spray via aircraft to poison all life forms. and again, this too shall pass, and is passing as we read and write. summary: treating people like crap produces crap. what do we really want as a society and how are we willing to participate to contribute?
Kathyrn, you have some good ideas but they are almost impossible to read. Please consider taking a remedial writing class. Also, you are wrong about self esteem preventing crime. Some of the most dangerous people on the planet had off-the charts self-esteem. Think of Josef Stalin or Pol Pot.
What I do wonder is what kind of tax breaks the corporations are getting for hiring these prisoners. I do know that there is a tax break to hire EX offenders...Believe me the (corporations) have figured out some loop-hole in which to take our tax dollars and institute slave labor while making themselves look as though they are contributing to the unfortunate among us.
just wait for the state police in usa,
its good for inmates to get training for jobs. upon realease from prison, but its not very smart. to give inmates your private info like bank account numbers. and personal info. i mean were talking prisoners. lol think about that and let me know your feedback.
Call it training at 50 cents an hour. Yes some head honcho skims it, yes it takes away from law abiding citizens( except if the jobs were overseas), but it retrains inmates for a productive life( even if they don't keep doing the work they did in jail), and it brings call centers back to America. All in all, I think it's a gain.
what information of mine are these convicts going to have access to, my credit card info ? i don't want these people having any information of mine. that's just great . these convicts are very cunning. only a matter of time before they figure how to scam
This is what's known as slave labor. You can bet your bottom dollar some corporation is making a bundle off of this while decent, law-abiding unemployed Americans are standing in the unemployment line.
We are all going to be rounded up one day and work in slave factories forever for the corporations. They are making it legal. first they passed a bill to round up Americans with no charge and detain them forever and then shoot them. See the story. It will happen over the years. then the Soylent Green factories. They will need workers there too. Anyone want the job?
I am a correctional officer who works at a prison. Our inmates do NOT pay for food, clothing, bed, etc. They get 3 hots & a cot, medical, free education (including college), classes about every social skill under the sun. Oh I'm sorry they pay $3 to see the doctor. I pay $20 to see mine & $30 to see a specialist plus $$ my insurance does not cover.
90% of them are selfish & when their families do NOT send them $$ for commissary they go ballistic. They use this food for trade & gambling debts. One out of 50 really truly want to be rehabilitated. When you hear "I have given my life to Christ" you better be watching your wallet or purse because that translates to "I'm trying to bull@!$%# my way out of here".
If you've never worked with inmates or in a prison you have no knowledge of this subject so how can you offer an opinion on it?! Families of inmates believe the tales of woe from the inmate. Heads up wives. When you leave girlfriend comes to visit! True fact!
This explains why so many call center emplolyees seem to be complete morons. I've spoken to people who can barely form a sentence and slur their words and wondered what company would be so stupid to hire them.
Teach the inmates how to farm..they'd be doing a service to America.!
Stick the inmates in the fields to harvest crops at prison wages.., then you'd be stealing jobs from illegal Mexicans!
Am I missing something? I do not trust the government anyhow...... It is a good way for our government to make money.... yes; but what does the government do with it? By the time I pay taxes out of my measley paycheck; I end up making the same as the prisoners! I feel that the lower income people in this country are prisoners anyhow with one exception..... we cannot afford 3 meals a day; we cannot afford health care; we cannot afford computers to sit at and we are losing our homes to sleep at at night! Prisoners these days have it made!! No wonder crime is up!!
The lottery is another way the government makes money. In our state they advertise the lottery is for education.... it says 26 billion so far for education!! Whose education? our taxes includes $1,600 for schools and we do not even have kids in schools. When I confronted our tax collector, he himself says this county has never seen any of the lottery money. We have to take our kids to school as the bus will not pick up unless you live over 2 miles away. We have to provide our schools all the supplies now. What gives??
Our taxes has doubles; food prices have doubled; gas has quadrupled.... and I made more back in 1985 than I do now!! Bring our factories back!! Quit letting foreigners become citizens in America until we can take care of what is here!! Foreigners seem to have no problem getting jobs here.... only the Americans do!! Sorry..... had to vent! Our government is selling us out!! No wonder everyone is wanting in politics! All you have to do is scratch each others back to make millions for yourself!!
the more customers they get, the more inmates they need. Not a wise road to go down.
the more business they get the more inmates they will need. Not a good road to go down. Notice the build up of prisons in this country.
Wonder if the fact inmates have access to all our information is the reason for ever increasing ID theft.
I always hated working in call centers. Criminy, even Rhett Butler got mad at Scarlet O'Hara for using prisoners at her lumber mill during Reconstruction. This just goes to show how awful call-centers are to work in. Nobody wants those jobs.
Bookies always got fat because they sat on the phone all day taking bets, now the whole country is fat because of these awful call center jobs. Back when I had to take a call center job, I was shocked that my boss actually went down to the jail and got prisoners to work there. Although it broke the monotony to hear the girl next to me talk about pulling a knife on someone. That was about twenty-five years ago.
Then I remember being at a temp agency when a young college graduate was there smartly dressed in a new suit and tie to interview. The employer came out and told us it was at a call center and he ran out, shaking his head, yelling, "No, no, no!"
I say this is just one more reason to make sure you stay out of prison!
Rehabilitation and training is good, prison factories for commercial businesses is for Chinese Communists.
In these situations the prisoners are typically compensated state or federal minimum wage with a portion of the compensation going to pay for their "room & board" and restitution. This helps offset the cost of incarceration that is passed on to taxpayers, while providing the inmates with a "savings" account and viable job skills that can facilitate a much more successful transistion back into society and minimize recidivism. Public and private sectors benefit, as well as the individuals and their families.
Now. all we have to do is convince these employers to hire a felon who has completed "on the job" training. As all of you posters know, whether you believe it or not, the vast majority are not able to find employment. I believe these people (in most cases) should be giving the chance to prove themselves. But, no one wants to hire a felon because they're a felon. Why is it employers (undoubtedly some of these posters are) refuse to give someone a chance, instead of locking doors in their faces? Sure there should be some screening, as to the type of job vs. the felony (hiring someone as a cashier when they stole money), child care giver ( sex offender) there has to be a meeting point somewhere. You may find a lot of valuable employees if you give these people a chance.
3 out of 5 Americans under the age of thirty (30) have already been in jail for up to a 1 year..1 to 3 times so they are in county lock up and open to SLAVE LABOR Especially if they can charge the third party company lets say like a Buck under Min wage and they make BILLIONS believe its a Publicly traded stock as well with a CEO and a Board ect ect ect So as you can see they MUST make a PROFIT to even the TRADE so to speak slave labor can pay big really big when commercially allowed and Ignored by all except those that are the current batch of slave labor
and you could be next with all these fresh new laws and re adjudicated laws and revised statutes you bet your Cute Pink Underwear that joe Ajpio would love to see you in Arizona they are now ramping up for this Ummmmm business in AZ if you dare call it that you will be One sooner or later See you slaves at the watering hole
Hey, that's an awesome story... It's great to see that multinationals who already get to use slave labor in Communist China to make retail trash for American shoppers now get to pay slave labor wages right here at home.
Only in Amerika!!!
For the past 13 years, I provided software/technical support to a prison work program. The inmates acquired marketable skills and had the opportunity to EARN money. Part of what they earned went to pay a portion of their room and board, and they got to keep part...just like real life.
The program also saved the State a ton of taxpayer money.