MMMMMM

A little ironic if the top management crooks of Enron, Healthsouth and some
of the other business. ended up in prison call centers for their prior
companies.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Johnson, Tracy" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 4:35 PM
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Oregon finds way to stop offshoring jobs


Can slave labor camps be not far away for those that disagree with the
state?

If not physically able, then don't forget to utilize the mental wards too.

BT


Tracy Johnson
MSI Schaevitz Sensors

> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of Wirt Atmar
> Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 4:07 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [HP3000-L] OT: Oregon finds way to stop offshoring jobs
>
>
> Can you imagine how bad things would be if they taught
> convicts to program?
>
> =======================================
>
> Company Takes Call Centers to Prisons
> Inmates Help Consulting Business Prevent Jobs From Going Overseas
> By ANDREW KRAMER, AP
>
> ONTARIO, Ore. (Feb. 25) - Chris Harry is a model employee for
> the U.S. call
> center industry. The 25-year-old arrives promptly at his
> cubicle, speaks
> courteously on the phone and is never late or absent.
>
> He plans to stick with his job for three years, a boon in an
> industry plagued
> by high turnover. And he gladly works for money many
> Americans would scoff at
> - $130 or so a month.
>
> After all, he could be back swabbing cell block floors for a
> third of that.
>
> "I can't complain about fair," said Harry, who was sentenced
> to 10 years and
> eight months for robbery. "I did a crime and I'm in prison.
> At least I'm not
> wearing a ball and chain."
>
> Prison inmates like Harry are the reason Perry Johnson Inc.,
> a Southfield,
> Mich.-based consulting company, chose to remain in the U.S.
> rather than join a
> host of telemarketing companies moving offshore.
>
> Perry Johnson had intended to move to India. But the company
> chose instead to
> open inside the Snake River Correctional Institution, a
> sprawling razor wire
> and cinder block state penitentiary a few miles west of the
> Idaho line.
>
> The center's opening followed a yearlong effort by the Oregon
> Department of
> Corrections to recruit businesses that would otherwise move
> offshore, and
> echoes a national trend among state and federal prisons to
> recruit such companies.
>
> "This is a niche where the prison industry could really help the U.S.
> economy," said Robert Killgore, director of Inside Oregon
> Enterprises, the
> quasi-state agency that recruits for-profit business to prisons.
>
> "I'm really excited about this," he said. "We keep the
> benefits here in the
> United States with companies where it's fruitless to compete
> on the outside."
>
> Prison officials have long praised work programs for lowering
> recidivism and
> teaching inmates skills and self-respect, yet have been
> criticized by unions
> for taking jobs from the private sector.
>
> Those concerns are moot if a company planned to leave the
> country anyway,
> Killgore said. National prison labor trade groups support the idea.
>
> Ten states including Oregon employ inmates in for-profit call
> centers. Oregon
> and many others also make garments and furniture - industries
> that have
> largely moved offshore, other than in prisons. Inmates are
> paid between 12 cents
> and $5.69 an hour, according to Bureau of Prisons statistics.
>
> Perry Johnson Inc. opened its call center in an Oregon prison
> for half the
> price of relocating to India, and achieved many of the same
> benefits, according
> to Mike Reagan, director of Inside Oregon Enterprises at Snake River.
>
>  "This is a niche where the prison industry could really help the U.S.
> economy."
> -Robert Killgore, director of an agency that recruits
> for-profit business to
> prisons
>
> At Snake River, to qualify for the call center job, inmates
> must have three
> to five years remaining on their sentence. Outside, the
> typical turnover is
> nine months.
>
> Also, inmates make good telemarketers, prison officials said.
>
> "They see an opportunity to talk to people and learn how to
> communicate,"
> said Nick Armenakis, a manager for Inside Oregon Enterprises.
> "They are told that
> to keep these jobs, they have to be very patient and very
> contrite, and
> follow protocol."
>
> The convicts pitch Perry Johnson's quality control consulting
> service to
> executives at American businesses, sometimes even company presidents.
>
> Prison officials randomly monitor inmates' phone
> conversations and all calls
> are digitally recorded to discourage personal calls or
> illegal activity.
>
> The prisoners work 40-hour weeks in rows of nondescript cubicles.
>
> Critics assail the idea of retaining American jobs in prisons
> as a flagrant
> violation of minimum wage laws and an affront to free workers.
>
> "Obviously, it doesn't do anything for the labor market here," said
> University of Oregon political science professor Gordon
> Lafer, author of a study on
> prison labor.
>
> "It's like bringing little islands of the Third World right
> here to the
> heartland of America," he said. "You get the same total
> control of the work force,
> the same low wages, and it does nothing for the inmates."
>
> Also, convicts don't benefit much from training for jobs that
> no longer exist
> in America because they have all gone overseas or into
> prisons, he said.
>
> Harry said he is thankful for the skills he has learned in prison, and
> intends to attend college when he is released. He kicked back
> in his cubicle and
> bantered about the weather with a customer in Houston.
>
> "I've been here three months," he said. "Nobody's ever
> suspected they're
> talking to a convict."
>
> 02/25/04 03:11 EST
>
> =======================================
>
> Wirt Atmar
>
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