I thought I heard all when it comes to outsourcing and call centers but this takes the effing cake.

A high-security prison near Hyderabad is starting a program to turn convicts into "outsourcing providers" for local firms and eventually, it is hoped, international clients. You will note that these are long-term prisoners. There is no talk of 'rehabilitation', just cheap labor. "The prisoners are being given training and then we can extract work from them," Gopal said.

It's a UK/india story for now but who wants to bet companies this side of the pond aren't going to jump at this chance for cheap labor.


Guardian UK

Chained to their desks: prisoners will staff call centre within Indian jailMurder convict among trainees for scheme backed by India's authorities which could lead to inmates answering calls from UK

snip

Though there are still significant obstacles to overcome before UK customers are routed through to a cellblock in India - including regulations forbidding internet or phone access with the world outside the 6m walls topped with live barbed wire - these are being overcome.

Surveying his first dozen inmates, Mohan Menon, a software specialist brought in to oversee the training, is bullish about the future. "Definitely we will get orders," he said. On a board behind him is written: "Skills of communication: KISS, Keep It Simple and Short."

Hyderabad is one of India's biggest centres of business process outsourcing, a £15bn industry in which many global firms subcontract key functions to local companies.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/01/call-centre-inside-indian-jail

and all the call center jobs will return since we have so many in prison! Although I feel they would be better suited for collections.

to "workers" getting paid 36¢ per hour.

A corporate dream. They speak English. They can't go out on strike. Customers never see the working conditions. They are told to work 14-hour days -- and who are they going to complain to?

And as Regie said, we have so many people in prison, this "human resource" will put us way ahead of competing countries economically.

Convict slave-labor. A Capitalist wet-dream. I bet Michelle Bachmann will even be willing to see taxes go to funding the prisons.

Prisoners of war were taken to Rome to be sold as slaves. The Romans even made war to get slaves, a lucrative trade. How long before they start throwing people in jail for trumped up charges to get cheap labor?

happening now.

they are a guaranteed source of cheap labor due to never ending parole violations. Disgusting.

occurred in Georgia. No one heard about it though.

http://newsone.com/newsone-original/boycewatkins/dr-boyce-we-must-all-support-the-georgia-prison-strike/

You may have heard about the prison strike occurring in Georgia right now. Inmates in four facilities have come together in an amazing show of solidarity to demand that they be treated like (gasp) human beings, not slaves or animals. Rather than continuing to fall for the game of divide and conquer that has kept them apart for so long, the whites, blacks, Muslims, Mexicans, and other groups have mobilized forces to fight for something worthwhile.


The guards and wardens of these prisons are nervous. For the longest time, they were able to convince the inmates to take their aggression out on each other. Now that the intellectual and spiritual guns are pointed at their overseers, the inmates are gaining access to the liberation that has been denied to them for so very long. The Georgia prison strike is not just a one-time event; it is a model for success in organizing that can be replicated around the country.

Outsourcing unit to be set up in Indian jail

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=535543

Pathetic, isn't it?

Google USA prisoners call centers and all sorts of stories come up:

Arizona prisoners make business calls, as do inmates in Oklahoma. A call center for the DMV is run out of an all-female prison in Oregon.

NY state Prisoners Staffing DMV Call Centers.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2004-07-06-call-center_x.htm

Prison Labor: Outsourcing's "Best Kept Secret"
Since 1999, private corporations in the U.S. have outsourced a variety of business services to federal prison inmates, who today earn around $1 an hour for call center work. Proponents of the practice claim prison labor is a low-cost alternative to offshore outsourcing, but critics say it takes jobs away from law-abiding U.S. citizens.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:XWfqNBj7DQ4J:www.cio.com/article/595304/Prison_Labor_Outsourcing_s_Best_Kept_Secret_+USA+prisoners+call+centers&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com

He used to have a business, but for-profit prisons did him in.

It took him a long, long time to figure out where all of those ridiculously low bids were coming from because they were all proffered under umbrella structures.

Sonoman

uses prisoners in his business

is his official name.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/11/technology/11fast.html

i mean, really? too much for the one guy in the store working the clown?
ya gotta outsource that job, too?

It's a LOOTING. Whether through legal, accountable or illegal means, they'll do it and we won't stop them.

What could possibly go wrong? :banghead: