Prisoner Employment

All together an average of 1400 prisoners are employed every month.

The objectives of the Prisoner Employment Department are as follows:

• To assist the effficient administration of prisons by reducing tension and providing useful activity.

• Pay is given in direct proportion to the amount of work and thus provides the IPS a means of offering personal incentives to prisoners to save and/or study in preparation for civilian life.

• Employment is combined with vocational training as well as basic (and some secondary) education so that the prisoner gains skills and work habits useful after release.

There are different types of employment:

• IPS internal workshops - such as carpentry, metal works, textiles, cardboard and paper etc.
• IPS internal needs - such as kitchen work, gardening, cleaning etc.
• Non-IPS employers operating factories inside the prisons.
• Non-IPS employers employing prisoners in factories and workshops outside the prisons.
• Vocational training - though not actual work, prisoners engaged in a vocational training program are also paid basic salary.

Prisoners do not get actual money payed out. The salary they earn is devided into three different parts:

• One third is paid into a savings program, that is paid out to the prisoner on his release from prison.
• One third is paid into the prisoner's account, which he can use to buy items in the prison canteen - such as sigarettes, sweets etc.
• One third is paid to the prisoner's family.