Your absolutely right to point this out and I agree with you on it ,but it just worries me that sooner or later one of those real loony types will slip through the net like they are so good at doing and hold a grudge to be settled when they are released next time.
Risk is part of life - and I don't think you will totally eliminate it - but are we really going to risk increased re-offending rates, for the one nut.
To be honest I have been called a lying thieving bastard by one person when working in a call center - you are trained to deal with them - in that instance I just put the phone down, let them rant and rave and waited for them to finish before helping them with their problem if it was possible - in that case I could not because he would not give me any information on his problem - it gives you great pleasure to be pleasant to them and end the call 'Terribly sorry sir, in this instance I will not be able to help you' - it also annoys the hell out of them - which leads to the other reason why I do not think it is such a big problem - people who are likely to attack someone are themselves bullies - bullies in general are cowards, they rely on people who cower - they really are not interested in facing down someone who can give as good as they get.
Risk is part of life - and I don't think you will totally eliminate it - but are we really going to risk increased re-offending rates, for the one nut.
To be honest I have been called a lying thieving bastard by one person when working in a call center - you are trained to deal with them - in that instance I just put the phone down, let them rant and rave and waited for them to finish before helping them with their problem if it was possible - in that case I could not because he would not give me any information on his problem - it gives you great pleasure to be pleasant to them and end the call 'Terribly sorry sir, in this instance I will not be able to help you' - it also annoys the hell out of them - which leads to the other reason why I do not think it is such a big problem - people who are likely to attack someone are themselves bullies - bullies in general are cowards, they rely on people who cower - they really are not interested in facing down someone who can give as good as they get.
But could all the prisoners put into that situation force themselves to act as calmly and indifferent as you had to, or would some think your going to get it when I’m next released.
But could all the prisoners put into that situation force themselves to act as calmly and indifferent as you had to, or would some think your going to get it when I’m next released.
Your kind of missing the point - if we tried to avoid anything with a risk involved we would not do anything. I just think the advantages to be gained by reducing re-offending rates far out weighs the chances of a a single nutter even bothering to hunt down the rude customer- and frankly the chances of that nutter coming from the prison population is only slightly larger than the chances of that nutter coming from the non-prison population.
Your kind of missing the point - if we tried to avoid anything with a risk involved we would not do anything. I just think the advantages to be gained by reducing re-offending rates far out weighs the chances of a a single nutter even bothering to hunt down the rude customer- and frankly the chances of that nutter coming from the prison population is only slightly larger than the chances of that nutter coming from the non-prison population.
I think the bigger risk is that prisoners have access to customer information which might prove useful to them when they are released from prison.
The unfairness is that people are being paid off so that companies can get cheap labour.
Punishing the honest and decent also seems to be part of this - 17 call centre workers were paid off at Christmas when prisoners were recruited.One comment from a let-go employee
'We can't compete with £3 an hour."
Among the crimes committed by the new employees are murder, fraud, and drug offences. Must be nice for employees lucky enough to not to be paid off yet to have to work alongside those.
How many of you who support this scheme would be happy to be paid off for the sake of convicted criminals?
The unfairness is that people are being paid off so that companies can get cheap labour.
Punishing the honest and decent also seems to be part of this - 17 call centre workers were paid off at Christmas when prisoners were recruited.One comment from a let-go employee
'We can't compete with £3 an hour."
This should be investigated - first off just on the grounds of unfair dismissal. 2nd because the scheme already precludes the making of existing people redundant.replacing existing workers with ex-cons.
Among the crimes committed by the new employees are murder, fraud, and drug offences.
Before or after being on the scheme? Seriously I wound not expect someone who was convicted of fraud to say be dealing with bank customers.
You either believe in re-rehabilitation or not. With re-offending so high we have to give people an alternative to a life of crime once their sentence has concluded.
How can paying a fraction of the minimum wage to economically inactive people ever benefit the economy? Actually, forget that.. It's not like anyone's pretending it's going to be?
I think the bigger risk is that prisoners have access to customer information which might prove useful to them when they are released from prison.
There's the nub of the problem for me.
Anyone handling personal data has to be CRB checked, surely?
Where I work, we have a call response centre and all staff have to be enhanced CRB checked before they get access to anyone's info, no matter how basic it may seem.
Comments
Risk is part of life - and I don't think you will totally eliminate it - but are we really going to risk increased re-offending rates, for the one nut.
To be honest I have been called a lying thieving bastard by one person when working in a call center - you are trained to deal with them - in that instance I just put the phone down, let them rant and rave and waited for them to finish before helping them with their problem if it was possible - in that case I could not because he would not give me any information on his problem - it gives you great pleasure to be pleasant to them and end the call 'Terribly sorry sir, in this instance I will not be able to help you' - it also annoys the hell out of them
But could all the prisoners put into that situation force themselves to act as calmly and indifferent as you had to, or would some think your going to get it when I’m next released.
Your kind of missing the point - if we tried to avoid anything with a risk involved we would not do anything. I just think the advantages to be gained by reducing re-offending rates far out weighs the chances of a a single nutter even bothering to hunt down the rude customer- and frankly the chances of that nutter coming from the prison population is only slightly larger than the chances of that nutter coming from the non-prison population.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/08/prisoners-call-centre-fired-staff?newsfeed=true
I think the bigger risk is that prisoners have access to customer information which might prove useful to them when they are released from prison.
The unfairness is that people are being paid off so that companies can get cheap labour.
Punishing the honest and decent also seems to be part of this - 17 call centre workers were paid off at Christmas when prisoners were recruited.One comment from a let-go employee
'We can't compete with £3 an hour."
Among the crimes committed by the new employees are murder, fraud, and drug offences. Must be nice for employees lucky enough to not to be paid off yet to have to work alongside those.
How many of you who support this scheme would be happy to be paid off for the sake of convicted criminals?
This should be investigated - first off just on the grounds of unfair dismissal. 2nd because the scheme already precludes the making of existing people redundant.replacing existing workers with ex-cons.
Before or after being on the scheme? Seriously I wound not expect someone who was convicted of fraud to say be dealing with bank customers.
You either believe in re-rehabilitation or not. With re-offending so high we have to give people an alternative to a life of crime once their sentence has concluded.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2186640/Now-Ministry-Justice-set-centres-JAILS-prisoners-British-regional-accents.html
There's the nub of the problem for me.
Anyone handling personal data has to be CRB checked, surely?
Where I work, we have a call response centre and all staff have to be enhanced CRB checked before they get access to anyone's info, no matter how basic it may seem.
One group of people in this situation have a higher status, i.e. the general public out-rank the prisoner.
Therefore to provide actual work that could be done by a normal member of the public to a prisoner is simply wrong. Unethical I would say.
By all means rehabilitate. But it should not be at the expense of any individual.
Of course the Conservatives are in no way interested in rehabilitation, they are just lying.