UNICOR, affiliated with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, has provided over a thousand inmates with call center jobs for years. Some state prison systems also do the same, including Arizona, where one company grossed multi-millions last year.
Televerde, has four call centers, and employs 250 female prisoners, according to an July 28, 2010 article in Forbes. At Televerde’s helm is James Hooker, whose work history includes jobs at IBM and Bell Atlantic. His idea of running these companies, and others, clashed with board members, so Hooker left to seek his own fortune, and to become his own boss.
In 1995 he discovered a call center with six employees inside an Arizona Prison. Once he took over this business, he turned this venture from a business that only had a bartering agreement with the Arizona Software Association to a thriving company that employs many more inmates and gives them job training and skills that they can take with them when they leave, and leaves him with a hefty profit.
The women working in the center have to have at least a GED, and have clear conduct. The women are given instruction on how to speak correctly and obtain “soft” skills. Hooker has proclaimed that these inmates are “ 50 times more motivated than someone on the outside.” And indeed, there are reasons to be motivated.
Whereas the average inmate makes thirty five cents an hour, Televerde employees make $7.25. The women work at Televerde for an average of four years and some have taken home $15,000 in savings when they were released. While in prison this money helps them pay child-support, or to take care of other financial obligations. The women are also able to buy presents for their children, a source of pride among the incarcerated. But there are other reasons that working for Televerde has a positive impact on these women.
Only eleven percent of Televerde’s former employees have gone back to prison after being released, compared to the forty percent national average for female former prisoners. The reason behind this lower recidivism rate might be that Televerde employees are offered classes in how to reconnect with family and obtain self-confidence, as well as how to create a budget and how to write a resume. And once they are released they have money in their pockets to find housing and buy necessities, options most newly released prisoners do not have.
Call center employment at prisons is not without its detractors. Twelve years ago a convicted rapist used the information he obtained from women seeking information on state parks to send them lewd messages. The American Civil Liberty Union fears exploitation of the workers because they are not allowed to form unions. The women at Televerde, however, view things differently.
The women quoted in the Forbes article happy to be working for Televerde. The pay rate, the self-improvement classes , the experience and the potential to succeed once released from prison are just some of the things the inmates cite. Most astounding is that several woman claim that being sent to prison was the best thing that happened to them. It is doubtful that they would have this sentiment if Televerde was not a factor in their incarceration.
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