Record of the 23^rd APCCA
 

Specialist Workshop One

Prison Industry Partnership

 
1.         INTRODUCTION

This workshop involved presentations by New Zealand and Hong Kong (China), followed by a number of questions and comments from other participants.  Mr Mark Byers delivered the New Zealand presentation and Mr Daniel Hui Tak-fuk delivered the presentation by Hong Kong (China).  The two presentations can be found on the APCCA website. 

Both jurisdictions have a strong and systematic approach to the question of prisoners’ work and actively seek to promote partnerships to enhance employment opportunities, both in prison and upon release.  However, there are several points of difference in terms of the types of partnerships that have been developed and, consequently, the type of work that is offered. In particular, Hong Kong (China) focuses on partnerships with government departments whereas New Zealand has been more actively pursuing private sector partnerships.  This summary outlines the key themes that emerged from the papers and the ensuing discussions. 

2.         WHY IS PRISON WORK IMPORTANT?

There was a strong consensus that work plays an important role, both in the management of prisons and in assisting the rehabilitation of prisoners. The aim is, as far as possible, to develop a structured day for prisoners, of which work is a key component.  The papers drew attention to the benefits of prisoners’ work:

Ø         Reducing the risks of boredom and unrest

Ø         A sense that the offender is repaying a debt to society

Ø         Promoting a pro-social, normal environment in prisons

Ø         Providing work skills that can assist the person in seeking employment upon release.

Ø         Making some contribution to the costs of imprisonment and reducing public expenditure

In the words of the Hong Kong (China) paper, “prison employment provides a cost effective way of managing and rehabilitating prisoners.” 

However, as the New Zealand delegate pointed out, work commitments may also need to be balanced with educational and treatment programmes.  He commented that issues of literacy and numeracy pose major barriers to many prisoners, so the aim is to “wrap employment around training and basic educational / computer skills.”

The Hong Kong (China) system however offers vocational training programmes mainly for the young offenders and voluntary remedial education for adults.

3.         WHAT SORT OF WORK?

As shown in the two papers, best practice seeks to link prison employment with rehabilitation.  This means that, as far as possible, the type of work that is undertaken should aim to enhance prisoners’ prospects of obtaining employment upon release.  Consequently, the preferred type of work will vary between different jurisdictions.  In all jurisdictions, prisoners are employed on what New Zealand called ‘internal self sufficiency activities’ such as prison cleaning, laundry, kitchen and grounds maintenance. 

However, beyond these routine tasks, there are differences.  For example, many New Zealand prisons provide work and training in areas of agricultural production (including pork and milk production), and other farming and forestry skills.  Hong Kong (China), however, stated that their main aim is to provide generic skills so that ex-prisoners can access a range of employment opportunities; and common forms of work include hospital laundry, furniture making, sign making, fiberglass products, printing, book lamination, envelope making, garment and knitwear, metal work and precast concrete products.

The type of work that is offered to inmates also reflects the types of partnerships that have been entered between correctional departments and government and private sector agencies.

Hong Kong (China) also chooses orders that are conducive to building up confidence and training on employability skills.

4.         GOVERNMENT SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS IN HONG KONG (CHINA)

Hong Kong (China)’s regime is firmly based on strong long-term links with government departments:

“Our penal population is quite stable. And the demand for prison-made goods for government internal consumption is sufficiently large to keep our entire penal population occupied….  We treasure a close, long-term business relationship with the government departments …. The government as an organisation has many family members.  We sell our goods/services to other members … and we also buy goods/services from other members.”

Conference delegates were able to observe some fine examples of inmates’ work, including high quality ‘Gortex’ shoes/boots for police and correctional services staff, road signs, concrete kerbing and plastic rubbish bins.

In Hong Kong (China), government departments are able to source products directly from the market or ‘in house’.  However, there are ‘preferential administrative arrangements’:

“Normally, when the manufacture of such products is within our capability, the departments are expected to give us some priority.  In other words, the government instead of buying the end products will buy the materials for making such products.”

These preferential arrangements have proved to be stable over a number of years and Mr Hui stated that, if they were to be withdrawn, the prison system might face difficulties because prisons are, by their very nature, less flexible than private businesses.

Since the focus in Hong Kong (China) is on government rather than private sector partnerships, “we are not running a business… But we are operating like a business because our client departments will not give work orders to our inmates if the delivery/cost/quality of our offers are not as favourable as those of our competitors in the commercial sector.  …. We are operating like a business because we will not be able to impart employability skills to our inmates if they are not employed in a ‘real-world’ workplace setting where people work with responsibility, diligence and cooperation. ….”

5.         PARTNERSHIPS IN NEW ZEALAND

In July 2001, New Zealand issued an ‘Inmate Employment Policy’ which articulated the Department’s strategic directions, and which has been actively implemented.  Unlike Hong Kong (China), there is no preferential arrangement with government agencies and the basic philosophy can be described as ‘private sector commercial’.  The commercial focus is seen as important in promoting continuity of employment within prisons and enhancing prisoners’ prospects of gainful employment upon release:

“Setting a commercial objective will ensure that prison industries are self-sustaining.  Where industries have been run on a non-commercial basis in the past, they have often met with failure and poor performance. Because non-commercial industries are not self-sufficient, they are often cut back in times of financial stringency or closed down when they make a loss.  Most importantly, commercial industries provide a suitable environment in which inmates can develop a constructive work ethic and commercial skills applicable to post-release employment.”

Pursuant to this philosophy, the Department identifies two key areas - ‘commercial activities run by prisons’ and ‘commercial industries run in co-operation with the private sector.’   Examples of initiatives under this commercial approach are in the areas of dairy products and small pig farming (where the Department has become one of the country’s major producers).  Prisoners have also been employed in manufacturing pre-cast concrete cells for use in a new prison.

However, whilst the aim may be continuity, Mr Byers pointed out that prison industries are subject to the same pressures as normal commercial enterprises.  Consequently, retrenchments have resulted in some areas as a result of over-spending.

The commercial flavour of New Zealand’s operations flows directly to the management structure that has been adopted.  Inmate employment is under the control of the Chief Financial Officer (rather than being subsumed under general prison services) and a product based structure has been employed, with managers in each of the core areas of employment.   The Inmate Employment Advisory Committee is also integral to the corporate structure.  This committee is akin to a Board of Directors and advises the Chief Executive on strategic directions and risk management.  It also has a role in approving major capital projects. The Committee’s membership includes more private sector than public sector members and a representative of Trades Unions.

6.         QUALITY CONTROL

Quality control is important in both systems.  Mr Hui pointed out that although preferential administrative arrangements exist in Hong Kong (China), customers still demand high quality products.  In New Zealand, the competitive focus means that quality control is essential to the very survival of the industries. Both jurisdictions have therefore explored mechanisms for benchmarking performance and quality control, and laundry and sign making services in Hong Kong (China) have ISO accreditation.

7.         COUNTERING CRITICISM

Efforts to improve prisoners’ employment can encounter criticism from a number of sources.  These include criticisms that prisoners are ‘taking away work from community members’; or that prisons are a source of ‘unfair cheap labour.’  These criticisms take different forms in different jurisdictions, depending on factors such as the strength of the union movement or the International Labor Organisation.   Hong Kong (China) has to some extent averted criticism by concentrating on government rather than private sector partnerships: “When the economy of Hong Kong (China) is in its present condition, it is not prudent to involve the private sector in employing inmates through privatisation which may produce significant adverse effect on the job opportunity and wage level of local workers.”

In New Zealand, the Inmate Employment Advisory Committee plays an important ‘public relations’ role because of its diverse membership (including trade union and private sector representatives).  In addition, the Department has forged strong links with relevant industry associations and seeks to explain the benefits of the system through the media.

8.         RELEASE TO WORK

Another interesting feature of the New Zealand system is that some inmates are released during the day to work with private sector employers.  They receive commercial remuneration but have amounts deducted to cover board and lodging and to contribute to victim compensation.

In Hong Kong (China), certain prisoners are approved to take up gainful employment in the country during the daytime and return to a hostel managed by the Department at night under the Pre-release Employment Scheme in the last 6 months of their sentences.  Some prisoners are released under supervision at the mid-point of their sentences to take up open employment under the Release under Supervision Scheme.

9.         CONCLUSION

This Workshop provided some fascinating insights into the arrangements for prisoner industries in two quite different jurisdictions. Despite these structural differences, many of the future challenges are broadly similar.  They include:

Ø         Improving quality and competitiveness.

Ø         Enhancing the links between employment and training.

Ø         Developing work opportunities for all categories of prisoners.

Ø         Evaluating the outcomes of initiatives.