CORRECTING CORRECTIONS: The pittances earned by inmates in prison work programs were not enough to cover their basic monthly expenses, the watchdog said

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 20, 2019
By: Hsieh Chun-lin  /  Staff reporter

The Control Yuan has censured the Ministry of Justice’s Agency of Corrections over its prison work programs that pay inmates as little as NT$20 per month, saying that some prisoners who have no outside means of support could not earn enough to buy underwear.

An investigation by Control Yuan members Wang Mei-yu (王美玉), Wang Yu-ling (王幼玲) and Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠) reviewed the work performed by more than 35,000 inmates at 45 prisons nationwide.

By law, all prisoners are required to work, unless there are special circumstances such as illness, but the majority of the work should be for government projects.

However, the investigation found that 58.4 percent of work performed in prisons was for private companies, including hand-processing jobs such as making paper bags or origami lotus flowers, the Control Yuan said in a statement on Monday.    [FULL  STORY]