The economic downturn is affecting workers not only in industrial sectors but also in an unexpected quarter — prisons.
Although it rarely gets public attention, many prisons have contracts with manufacturers and let prisoners do factory work in jail, such as assembling auto parts, for much lower pay compared with similar contracts "outside prison walls."
For manufacturers, subcontracting such work to prisons saves production and shipping costs compared with outsourcing the work to factories in China.
But the economic downturn is affecting even those arrangements.
In November alone, jobs for some 200 prisoners vanished nationwide after manufacturers decided to cut production, and another 500 jobs disappeared the following month, according to sources.
In the April-December period, 86 contracts were axed between prisons and manufacturers, eliminating jobs for 1,262 inmates, the sources said.
Given the fewer manufacturing jobs, prisons are assigning other work to inmates, they said.
The Justice Ministry said some 65,000 prisoners were engaged in such work as of last March as part of penalties for their offenses and also as preparation for their return to society.
Nearly 80 percent of prison jobs involve assembling parts for manufacturers and sewing for the apparel industry, the ministry said.
