CHERIE BLAIR, wife of the former prime minister, is leading a drive for prisoners to earn up to £10,000 a year doing work in jail for firms which are household names.

She has endorsed a pilot scheme in a category C prison in which serious offenders are paid the minimum wage – £5.52 an hour – to work for companies such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and Clifford Chance, the City law firm.

 

Critics fear that the scheme will let prisoners lead a cushy existence in jail or accumulate a nest egg of tens of thousands of pounds.

 

Because inmates receive free board and lodging and pay no tax, they could be left better off than law-abiding low-paid workers outside.

 

Supporters, including the Tories and the Howard League for Penal Reform, believe that giving wages to prisoners prepares them for reentering society. They would update their skills and be allowed to send money to their families.

 

At present prisoners who work a 32-hour week are typically paid only £8 to £12. Their work normally involves tasks such as laundry and road sign making. They are allowed to spend no more than £33 of their savings per week on a restricted range of products including basic food, cigarettes and toiletries.

 

Blair visited HMP Coldingley in Surrey last week to inspect Barbed, a graphic design business based inside that employs prisoners coming to the end of their sentences and counts Kentucky Fried Chicken and Clifford Chance as clients. She plans to endorse it in a speech next month in her role as head of a commission on social policy and prison reform. Her report will be published next year.

 

Frances Crook, director of the Howard League, said: “Prisoners spend all day lying on their bunks when they should be properly employed doing real work. Prisoners should support their families, pay tax and save for their pensions.

 

“If they want the little extras like decent bedding or DVD players, they should pay for them out of real wages.” Crook said she plans to involve mainstream employers such as Ford and national supermarket chains.

 

This weekend Nick Herbert, the shadow justice secretary, said: “As long as proper deductions are being made I see no reason why they should not be allowed to earn a proper wage as part of a process of rehabilitating them.

 

“Obviously there will be prisoners for whom it is not appropriate for them to be paid, but that should be left to the discretion of the [prison’s] governor.”

 

David Heath, the Liberal Democrat justice spokesman, said: “Convicts should be made to give a good proportion of their wages to the victims of crime.”

 

The Howard League proposed that the prisoners pay income tax, but the government is refusing to accept contributions because the inmates might then have workers’ rights.

 

Source : Sunday Times

 

Utterly ridiculous :manson:

 

It would encourage people to go to prison who can't get jobs or are on really low incomes or whatever

 

prison should be about punishment and some education thrown in not f***ing rewarding people :manson:

 

I would rather see £10k being given to victims of crime not criminals

id like them to be employed AFTER their sentance is over, as part of their punishment.

 

say in the last month of their sentance, they started the job that they HAD to continue with upon release for a minimum of say 6 months. otherwise they would be re-arrested and locked up for longer.

 

this way they would have little reason to immediately re-offend, hopefully they would integrate into society.

If they're doing work for large chains or household names, then of course they should be paid the going rate - why should the likes of KFC have a free labour resource...? Utterly ridiculous....

 

HOWEVER, while they are still in prison it is only fair and correct that the majority of the wages (I would say 75% was fair) be re-directed to victims, victims' families or victim support groups...

 

Rob's idea is a sound one as well, if they had an honest job to go to as part of their rehabilitation or probation, re-offending would be less likely than merely being turfed back out onto the streets with no real support....