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    Prison Labour
    Inmate work policies
    from The Jobs Letter No.70 / 22 December 1997

  • The Minister of Corrections, Paul East, has released a report which, for the first time, spells out in detail the government's intentions for inmate employment. The policy: inmates are to work six hours a day, five days a week, leaving time for education, therapy and skills training. East says the government intends "to have all inmates doing a decent day's work so that they develop good work habits and improve their chances of getting a job when they're released from prison..."

    The report confirms the policy direction that has been becoming obvious in the Corrections Department for some time. The government intends that the number of joint ventures between prisons and the private sector be significantly increased. It concedes that this policy may breach NZ's obligations under the International Labour Organisations' conventions on forced labour. (Cabinet has directed officials to look into the implications of this, and report back by March 98).

    At present, about 70% of all inmates are engaged in some form of work, ranging from labouring to highly-specialised computer-based work. Prison authorities are looking at singling out industries where there was little opposition to entry such as imported goods, community services and prison self-sufficiency services.

    Source -- The Dominion 5 December 1997 "Inmate work policy may breach forced labour conventions" by NZPA

  • The Business Roundtable has published a report "Controlling Crime in NZ" by Cathy Buchanan and Peter Hartley. Buchanan and Hartley believe that private firms should be allowed to bid for prison labour on the basis of competitive tendering. They say this would avoid two major problems with prison industries unfair competition and inadequate job-training programmes.

    Buchanan and Hartley: "Under a competitive tendering approach, any private firm would be allowed to bid for prison labour. The firm offering the highest payment for inmate workers would win the tender, provided it met certain conditions laid down by the Corrections Department ... The firms will be paying, in effect, the competitive market wage, and since anyone can bid for the use of such labour no unfair advantage will be gained by the firm that wins the bid. There is no need to restrict prison industries to goods and services for which there is no domestic supplier..."

    Source New Zealand Herald 6 October 1997 "Prisons: an untapped source of labour for private enterprise" by Cathy Buchanan and Peter Hartley
    "When the state puts prisoners to work in public or community work, in theory the benefit of such prison labour goes to the whole of society. When the state indents prison labour to private industries for private profit, while punishment continues to be in the name of society, the benefits from prisoners go to private interests..."

  • Prison labour researcher Radha D'Souza says that the ILO convention prohibits forced labour and any work where the prisoner is "hired or placed at the disposal of private individuals, companies or associations." Also, certain articles of the United Nations standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners prohibit the interests of prisoners being "subordinated to the purpose of making financial profit from an industry in the institution".

    D'Souza: "Our social and legal systems are founded on two key assumptions. In theory the state is neutral and above classes or sectional interests; and punishment is meted out to offenders in the name of society as a whole. When the state puts prisoners to work in public or community work, in theory the benefit of such prison labour goes to the whole of society. When the state indents prison labour to private industries for private profit, while punishment continues to be in the name of society, the benefits from prisoners go to private interests..."

    D'Souza warns that prison industries are themselves becoming global enterprises. Prison industries are among the fastest-growing industries in the US, which hopes to regain its competitive edge in textiles and footwear markets. She cites one American company which has set up affiliates in Britain and Australia.

    Radha D'Souza is the author of a study of prison industries in NZ "Prison Industries: Reversing on the Fast Lane" published by the Trade Union Federation.

    Source New Zealand Herald 14 October 1997 "A need to do sums on prison labour ideas" by Radha D'Souza

  • See also More Details on "One-Stop" Announcement

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