Outsourcing unit to be set up in Indian jail

[OhioChick]

Authorities in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh are planning to set up an outsourcing unit in a jail.

The unit will employ 200 educated convicts who will handle back office operations like data entry, and process and transmit information.

The project will begin at Charlapally Central Jail, near the state capital Hyderabad, in the next four months.

India is a hub for the outsourcing industry, but this is the first time a unit will be set up inside a jail.

The prison, with 2,100 inmates, is Andhra Pradesh's most modern with state-of-the-art facilities.

The proposed outsourcing unit is a public-private partnership between the department of jails and an IT (information technology) company, Radiant Info Systems.

'Ensuring future'

"The idea is to ensure a good future for the educated convicts after they come out of jail," CN Gopinath Reddy, director general of prisons in Andhra Pradesh, told the BBC.

"With their experience of working in the BPO in jail, any company will absorb them in future."

Radiant Info Systems director C Narayana Charyulu said Charlapally jail was chosen for the project because nearly 40% of the inmates there were educated.

"We have identified the area in the jail where the unit will come up. It will have computers as well as connectivity," Mr Reddy said.

Mr Charyulu said 200 people would be recruited and trained for the job initially.

The unit, which is expected to undertake back-office work for banks, will work round the clock with three shifts of 70 staff each.

Working in the unit will also be financially rewarding for the prisoners.

"The convicts get a paltry 15 rupees <33 cents> per day for other work like making steel furniture or working on looms, but we intend to pay them 100 rupees <$2.2> to 150 rupees <$3.32> a day," Mr Charyulu said.

Officials say this is a pilot project and, if it succeeds, it could be extended to other jails in the state.

Of the total 13,000 convicts in Andhra Pradesh jails, about 2,000 are considered well-educated and could potentially be good workers for BPOs and even call centres in the future.

Mr Charyulu said a BPO in jail would benefit the inmates as well as help the IT company make some profits.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8677486.stm

Fucking insane.

[musette_sf]

1. OMFG

:argh:

[ihavenobias]

2. Wow.

Speechless.

[Angry Dragon]

3. Shaking my head

[PSPS]

4. Do Texas prison inmates still do airline reservations? They used to.

[jtuck004]

5. BoA has a big BPO center near there, and are opening another in Mumbai.

Some of these folks might get involved at some point.

It gives them much more useful skills than making iron furniture and clothing. Maybe they could work for Goldman Sachs one day...

[Newsjock]

6. Sometimes I still can be shocked

This is one of those times.

---

Here's another story on this same subject:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7124634.ece

... In what has been billed as “a unique public-private experiment”, an Indian outsourcing company that claims Royal Bank of Scotland and Goldman Sachs as clients is to employ inmates at Cherlapally Central Jail in Hyderabad to help to process bank paperwork.

... In Bangalore and Mumbai BPO wages are rising sharply — a result of increased demand for outsourced services from Western companies thanks to the credit crisis. To try to tap into a cheaper pool of labour, BPO companies have started setting up offices in rural areas, where they can pay lower wages.

[OhioChick]

8. You should post that in GD....

More exposure.

That's pathetic.

[blue97keet]

20. Criminals working for Goldman Sachs etc., a perfect fit.

:puke: :sarcasm:

[Cronus Protagonist]

7. "Sir, can I have the last four digits of your SSN and your DOB?" Thank you.

Yeah... I'll be doing that.

[MisterP]

9. how very Chinese: hope they get to keep their organs... nt

[alp227]

10. And so where's the similar project in the US, where recidivism runs rampant?

Seriously. Too many American felons are left out to fend for themselves while scarred permanently by a "do not hire" label.

[WCGreen]

11. What good will it do...

When they get out all the jobs will be gone...

[jtuck004]

13. I think the Federal Prison system operates a call center service,

and I think similar operations are found in Michigan, Oregon, and Arizona.

Most jobs are the typical labor jobs you might expect, but some take credit card info for sales, etc.

From what little I have read, there are less problems with identity theft and other typical issues in the prisons than there are at private call centers.

[arikara]

12. Criminals working for banks...

what a novel idea.

:rofl:

[earcandle]

14. I am all for rehab programs, but not for market labor competing with prison labor prices.

[proudohioan]

16. Yeah, the irony of THAT one.....

on so many levels....

[IDemo]

15. Onionesque,

but what news isn't these days?

[proudohioan]

17. Words escape me. n/t

[HillWilliam]

18. Well, hey, slave labor worked out well for Prescott Bush

and his cronies. He made more than enough money to buy himself out of treason charges. Current American companies are just following his fine Patriotic Capitalist Murrican™ values. :puke:

[wolfgangmo]

19. Best point yet.

Let's be clear about this. If this makes money (and it will) it will encourage other political leaders to jail lots of folks (don't like that journalist? Stick him in jail and put him to work for the next 40 years at zero pay) and then set up their own companies.

This already happens here in the US and it is big business in China and other countries already.

It's hard for a democratically run capitalistic company to compete with the labor costs of slavers.

[Skittles]

21. there will be no difference in quality

[midnight]

22. I wish I could of kicked this earlier. Great information. And I agree with

the slavery angle on this test pilot program....