A government scheme in Spain that has prisoners make their jailers’ clothes has come apart at the seams after officers complained their uniforms were ill-fitting, uncomfortable, badly made and sometimes covered in stains.
The prison workers’ union, part of the general workers’ union, complained that pockets were sewn at different heights and trousers had legs of unequal lengths.
“They don’t meet even minimum standards of quality in either material or manufacture,” said Joaquín Leyva, the union’s spokesperson. “The colours run, they are badly sewn and the sizes aren’t correct.”
While it is hardly surprising if prisoners show little concern for their jailers’ comfort, Leyva says the problem is the result of incompetence rather than malice.
Quality control is carried out by the prisoners, Leyva said, adding that they are not under pressure to produce good work as they are not about to lose their jobs.
The contract for prisoners to make the uniforms for the country’s 25,000 prison staff was renewed last week. The union is demanding that it be rescinded, saying the prison workshops “are incapable of making uniforms of sufficient quality”.
Leyva said the union wanted the work to be done by an external company with proper standards of quality control.
According to the union: “The prison community feels discriminated against compared with other groups such as the national police and the civil guard, who have better quality uniforms made by recognised external companies.”
The prison officers’ uniforms are made by a state-run company with a view to giving prisoners work experience and a better prospect of re-entering society on their release.
The prison workshops organisation says its aim is for “our workshops produce goods of the highest quality”.
Despite the union’s complaints, there seems little chance that the production of the uniforms will be outsourced in the near future, as in recent years the government has invested heavily in machinery and training in the eight textile workshops spread across the country’s prisons.
Credit: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/12/spain-prison-made-uniforms-jail-ugt
