The jails where time is money
Most people give little thought to the physical location of call centres. If the person at the other end of the line sounds a bit like yourself, well, they are probably in the same country, albeit in the poorer regions. If their speech is more accented, then maybe they are somewhere near Hyderabad. But what would be the reaction if it was known that the call was coming from the local jail?
It is not beyond the realms of possibility. Perry Johnson, a Michigan-based training company, runs a successful business-to-business call centre, not from India or Appalachia, but in the ominously-named Snake River Correction Institute in Oregon.
Nor is it the only employer of inside labour. In the UK, a number of businesses use inmates to manufacture products, from light fittings to window frames to football nets, while in Germany there is even a fashion label that uses the tailoring skills of the inmates at Berlin's Tegel prison, Europe's largest penitentiary.
But why do it at all? Why send work inside? For one thing, prison labour is relatively cheap. For another, it is useful if the company is located in an area with negligible unemployment. Also, there is a social element it is a good way for a business to get involved with the local community.
But for some companies and this is very much a sign of the times prison is a patriotic alternative to outsourcing business overseas. “A lot of companies want to keep jobs in the US and using correctional facilities is a way to do it,” says Ronna Newton, a consultant who helped Perry Johnson set up the call centre. “India is still cheaper than prison, but this is a way to keep work here and provide a community service.”
Perry Johnson is not worried about what those on the receiving end of calls may think about its jailhouse call centre. “If asked, people don't hide where they're calling from”, says Ms Newton. Indeed, she says that the company is very pleased with the performance of its in-house workforce, adding that the call centre had the pick of Snake River's inmates 250 applied for30 places. At Dextra, a lighting company based in Dorset on England's south coast, the thinking was broadly similar although the catalyst for looking inside was the chronic staff shortage the business was experiencing. The company's location in a rural and fairly affluent area means that getting staff has always been a problem, says Rupert Martin, the chief executive. Moreover, many of the positions he needed to fill were the kind of repetitive jobs that many workers in the UK currently have the luxury of being able to turn down: at the moment, some 20 per cent of his factory floor workers are foreign. The arrangement began after the arrival of a new operations director four years ago. “He said: ‘I think I've got the answer to your staffing problems the local prison can do some of the sub-assembly,'” explains Mr Martin. “I thought he was off-the wall, but I said: ‘If you can make it work, I'll give it a go.'” Today, Dextra works with three prisons around the country: Guys Marsh in Dorset, Erlestoke in Wiltshire and Long Lartin in Worcestershire.
Like Perry Johnson, Mr Martin says that it was a case of ship them abroad or send it to prison, “and I would rather have them at the prison down the road than in China”.
And although he says that there is a social aspect to the use of prisoners, he insists that, first and foremost, the rationale is good business: “I suppose you draw a bit of satisfaction from the fact that some people are being helped towards a normal life especially when you realise how many of them can't read or write or have never worked,” he says. “But, at the end of the day, it's a working relationship.”
Beaufort Secure Design is another business that makes extensive use of prison labour, not least because much of its output secure windows and doors is used in prisons. “We're supplying the prison service,” explains Nigel Yates, the managing director. “So we're keen to employ prisoners. We wanted to put something back, so we got involved as part of the prisoner rehabilitation programme.”
Beaufort's relationship is actually a little more complex and it works with the service on several levels. First of all, it uses labour inside prison workshops for the same kind of routine work that Dextra does. But it also takes prisoners on a day-release basis: “We've had six prisoners on release work for us since we started,” says Mr Yates, “and right now, we've got four on our books.” Beaufort also goes one step further, employing former prisoners on a full-time basis. Of course, says Mr Yates, the company did have some reservations at first. When it came to employing people on day release, they had to talk the matter through with regular staff, who said they would not be happy to work with certain categories of offender. But, he says, within a couple of weeks, “we found that they were really good workers and mixed very well”.
“The day release prisoners”, continues Mr Yates, “were really happy to be out of the cells and the money goes to supporting their families so they're very well behaved. In fact they work very hard and, of course, being on day release, they always show up on time.”
Using day-release prisoners is different in another way too: it is more expensive. For when you are using labour inside prisons, you tend to pay the prison service a contract rate and it then pays the workers a nominal wage, usually enough to improve life on the inside, but not serious outside money. But with the day-release prisoners, says Mr Yates, “we pay them the same as everyone else”.
Berlin's Tegel jail has probably the most entrepreneurial approach to prison labour. Inmates can be found busily stitching a clothing range whose unique selling point is that it is “made in jail”. Indeed, the clothing range is proudly stamped with the word Haeftling German for prisoner.
“I got the idea in 2003 when I read that inmates in Tegel were producing products for the public in prison,” says Stephen Bohle, Haeftling's managing director. “I thought it was an unusual idea. So I visited and took a look at what they made.” As it turned out, Mr Bohle was not much interested in the products briefcases, shoes that were produced for the public. “But we liked the authentic jailwear the prisoners made for themselves,” he says.
After negotiating with the prison authorities, the company started a website in July 2003 and was quickly overwhelmed. With more than 4,000 orders in their first month, the prison tailors simply could not supply enough jailwear and the business had to shut down and reopen in December of that year. Things have since settled down, but the company still has sufficient demand it sells the products to places as far away as Japan to use several other German prisons. Like the others, Mr Bohle cites a mixture of the desire to do something good for the local community, the low cost of labour and, uniquely here, the appeal of prison kit made by real prisoners.
The demand for the clothing is growing. It would appear that the “Made In Jail” tag is more appealing to local consumers than “Made In China”.
“监狱制造”的价值
大多数人不大会想，到底电话呼叫中心的实际位置在哪里。如果电话另一头的人听起来有点像你自己，那他们可能和你在同一个国家，也许在较为贫穷的地区。如果他们说话带些口音，那他们或许是在印度海德拉巴附近的某个地方。然而，如果你得知电话是来自本地的监狱，你会有何反应呢？
这种情况并非不可能。佩里?约翰逊（Perry Johnson）公司是一家总部位于美国密歇根州的培训机构，它成功地经营着一家企业对企业的呼叫中心，但这个呼叫中心不在印度或美国阿巴拉契亚的贫穷地区，而是在名字不太吉利的俄勒冈州蛇河惩教所（Snake River Correction Institute）。
佩里?约翰逊公司不是监狱劳动力的唯一雇主。在英国，很多企业都利用囚犯从事生产，产品从照明设备到窗框、足球网等不一而足。而在德国，甚至有个时尚品牌利用柏林泰格尔（Tegel）监狱囚犯的裁缝手艺。泰格尔监狱是欧洲最大的监狱。
但是为何要这么做呢？为什么要把工作送进监狱？一方面是因为监狱劳动力相对便宜；另一方面，如果企业所在地区的失业率低到可以忽略不计，那么这样做就有好处。此外，还有一个社会因素：这是企业介入当地社区的一个良好途径。
但对一些企业来说，与其将业务外包到海外，不如把这些业务送进监狱，这是一种爱国的做法，而且具有明显的时代特征。曾经帮助佩里?约翰逊公司建立电话呼叫中心的咨询顾问罗纳?牛顿（Ronna Newton）说，“很多企业想把工作岗位留在美国，而使用惩教机构是一种途径。虽然将工作外包到印度比监狱更便宜，但这是一种把工作留在本地并提供社区服务的方式。”
对于电话另一端的接听者对监狱呼叫中心可能有什么看法，佩里?约翰逊公司并不担心。“如果被问到，那些人不会隐瞒自己的位置，”牛顿女士说道。她表示，事实上公司对监狱劳工的表现非常满意。她补充说，呼叫中心有很大的选择余地，例如它所提供的30个职位，蛇河惩教所就有250名囚犯申请。
Dextra是一家照明设备公司，总部位于英格兰南部海岸的多塞特地区。该公司的想法和佩里?约翰逊公司非常类似，但是促使它到狱中寻找劳动力的原因是长期员工短缺。该公司的首席执行官鲁珀特?马丁（Rupert Martin）表示，公司地处相当富足的农村地区，这意味着雇佣员工一直是个问题。此外，需要填补的许多职位都属于重复性劳动，而很多英国工人有条件拒绝此类工作：目前在他的工厂车间中，约有20%的一线工人是外国人。4年前一名新运营总监上任后，公司便开始使用监狱劳工。马丁先生解释道，“他说，‘我看已找到解决员工问题的办法了：当地的监狱能做一些部件装配的工作。’当时我认为这有点不可思议，但我说：‘如果你能让它奏效，我同意这么做。’”现在Dextra与英国3家监狱合作，它们分别是多塞特的Guys Marsh监狱，威尔特郡的Erlestoke监狱和伍斯特郡的Long Lartin监狱。
跟佩里?约翰逊公司的想法一样，马丁先生表示，这是一个把业务送到国外还是送进监狱的问题，“我宁愿把业务送给离这儿不远的监狱，也不会送去中国。”
而且，尽管他表示雇佣囚犯带有社会因素，但他还是强调说，第一位也是最重要的基本原则是对生意有好处。“一些人得到帮助，过上正常的生活，我想我们都可以从这里面获得些许满足感，特别是当你意识到，他们中有那么多人不会阅读、写字，或者从来没有工作过，”他说，“但说到底，这是一种工作关系。”
波弗特安全设计公司（Beaufort Secure Design）是另一家大量使用监狱劳动力的企业，这其中最重要的原因在于，它生产的安全门窗大部分用于监狱。“我们是监狱的供应商，”公司董事总经理奈杰尔?耶茨（Nigel Yates）解释说，“因此，我们乐于雇佣囚犯。我们希望做出一些回报，所以参与其中，成为囚犯改造计划的一部分。”
相对其他公司来说，波弗特公司与监狱的关系其实要略微复杂些，它与监狱的合作有几个层次。首先，它利用狱内的劳动力做些与Dextra同样的常规工作。不过它也使用日间假释的囚犯。“从我们开始这么做以来，已经有6名囚犯在假释期间为我们工作过，”耶茨先生说，“现在我们就有4名这种囚犯。”而且，波弗特公司还更进了一步：雇佣刑满出狱的囚犯做全职工作。耶茨先生表示，公司最初的确有些保留。开始雇佣日间假释囚犯时，公司设法跟一般职员谈妥此事，因为这些职员表示，他们不愿与某类罪犯一起工作。但耶茨先生说，几星期不到，“我们就发现他们真是不错的工人，跟大家相处得非常融洽。”
“对于能离开监狱并赚钱养活家人，获得日间假释的囚犯真的很高兴，”耶茨先生继续说道，“所以他们表现很好。事实上，他们工作非常努力，当然，因为是假释的关系，他们总能准时上班。”
利用日间假释囚犯还有一个不同之处：这样做成本更高。原因在于，当你利用狱内劳动力时，你往往会付给监狱一笔合同费用，而监狱再支付给囚犯一份不高的工资，这份工资通常足够改善囚犯的狱中生活，但对于狱外生活来说则微不足道。至于日间假释囚犯，耶茨先生说：“我们付给他们的工资和其他人一样多。”
在利用监狱劳动力方面，柏林泰格尔监狱可能最具备创业精神。你会看到囚犯在狱中忙着缝制一系列服装，这些服装的独特卖点是“监狱制造”。事实上，这些服装系列被自豪地印上了“Haeftling”（德语，意为囚犯）的标记。
Haeftling公司董事总经理斯蒂芬?伯勒（Stephen Bohle）说，“我在2003年想到了这个点子，当时我读到一些报道，称泰格尔的犯人在为公众制造产品，我觉得这是个不一般的点子。所以我造访了监狱，看看他们做些什么东西。”结果，伯勒先生对那些为大众生产的公文包和鞋子不太感兴趣。“但我们喜欢犯人们为自己做的地道的囚服，”他说。
公司与泰格尔监狱的管理部门进行洽商后，于2003年7月设立了一个网站，该网站很快被订单压垮了。在第一个月中，公司接到4000多份订单，但那些监狱裁缝们根本无法提供足够的囚服，因此该业务不得不关闭，到当年12月重开。此后业务发展平稳，但公司仍有充足的需求（它把产品远销至日本等地方），因此还利用另外几家德国监狱的人手。和其他人一样，伯勒先生称这么做有好几个原因：渴望为当地社会做些好事、劳动力成本低，以及由实实在在的囚犯缝制出来的囚服很有吸引力，最后这点正是他的业务所独有的。
目前对这些服装的需求正日益增长。对当地消费者而言，“监狱制造”的商标看上去似乎比“中国制造”更有吸引力。
欲了解本系列的第一部分，请访问
www.ft.com/patriot。
