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Female inmates at a Singapore prison are working
12-hour shifts as telephone call-center operators and telemarketers in a state
campaign to rehabilitate lawbreakers.
``It's pretty much the same as a commercial call center, except it's behind
bars,'' said Vincent Chan, a senior manager at the Singapore Corporation of
Rehabilitative Enterprises. ``It's our way of upgrading the old prisons'
industries and enhancing the inmates' employability.''
The call center is a cubicle-filled room about the size of a basketball court at
the Changi Women's Prison and Drug Rehabilitation Center.
The duties of the 38 inmates working there include answering questions about
prepaid mobile phone cards and consumer products, he said. Supervisors monitor
the calls to make sure they are limited to business.
The operators are trained to speak clearly and to soothe difficult customers.
The call center operates around the clock and has 10 clients, including a
telecommunications company, Chan said. Clients did not want to be named due to
concerns that links with a prison could hurt their business.
Chan said the inmates were paid for their work, but declined to say how much.
``I was a workaholic before, and not having anything to do in jail made me feel
down,'' Singapore's Straits Times quoted a 32-year-old operator, Aris,
as saying. ``Being in this program helped me to be myself once again because I
feel useful.''ASSOCIATED PRESS
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