Idea to improve Royal Mail .

[acc2020]

I recieved a few christmas parcels 3/4 weeks late over christmas , it was similar the year before , and the year before that but not as late.

They often use snow as an excuse in the media , whether that is totally true or not i don't really know. Anyway this got me thinking , why don't Royal Mail sub contract some mail sorting to the prison service ?

Heres my idea explained , get prisoners to do the menial tasks such as opening mail sacks and sorting them. Instead of the prison service paying them Royal Mail pay them instead , they are paid no more than £10 a week like in prison , a massive saving for the company!

The ones selected would have to pass strict guidelines which may include length of sentence , type of conviction , whether they wish to work etc. Examples may be young non violent offenders , poor people jailed for non payment of council tax and jailed motering offenders. Examples of those not eligible may include sex crime offenders and those convicted of theft and violence.

A secure area can be built within the mail center where the prisoners can work so they do not interact with others and also so they are unable to abscond.

Giving prisoners the opportunity to work may prepare them for outside life and rehabilitate. A reference may be given to help them get a job after their release.

It could be used for those on community service , the added bonus is that Royal Mail won't even have to pay them a tenner!

Because Royal Mail are paying them instead of the prison , they are saving the government tax money , and should tax Royal Mail and regular employees at a lesser rate.

Obviously this is just the outline of my idea and will need a bit of tweaking. A potential saving of tens of millions of pounds each year. Win / Win in the eyes of the customer.

What do you think ?

[fishtank]

Why don't we just go the whole hog and open up the workhouses again?
Please sir...can i have some more?

Is this a post from the Policy Exchange?...

[POSTMAN]

[sidewinder]

I've worked in prisons many moons ago and you're idea is the biggest load of rubbish I've read. Go back to the daily mail or learn how the prison service/ royal mail works.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Right lets me see if I got this right - We had a balanced article on TV in 2004 about thefts from RM, we had another a few years ago. We regularly have one or 2 stories a month about bent posties nicking stuff and being sent down, or having a community service order placed on them, and to cap it all quite a few members of the public believe that theft from packets is rife and we are all at it.

Sorry mate given the background and general perception of the General Public toward RM at the moment can't see your idea being a less than a complete and utter fail on the PR side.

On the security side OK they wouldn't have to pay the prisoners much, but they would have to pay them something I believe Slavery was outlawed in the 1800s. Even with low cost in wages there would be increased costs in insurance, transportation, security, paying HMP service for guarding them, claims for missing items, costs of prosecuting when thefts occur.

[jonny123]

i have a better idea, how about i go into the nick on days and sort mail whilst all the cons do a bit of park and loop.