City to Hire Ex-Cons as Collection Agents

Published on:
12 September 2006 at 10:21 a.m. ET

Written by: Unknown Author –

http://www.insidearm.com/news/00025473-city-to-hire-ex-cons-as-collection-agents/

If you’re in the Chicago area and are a little behind on a utility bill, parking ticket, or library fine, the next collection call asking you to pay up could be an ex-convict, fresh from doing time in the Big House, according to a story running in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Chicago’s Department of Revenue sees the program as a way to make the transition from incarceration to life on the outside an easier one, giving inmates job skills they can use as they integrate back into society.

The ex-offenders will have no access to debtors’ credit info, nor will they be handling cash transactions on the phone. People in the program will merely place the phone call to the debtor; if the debtor decides to pay up, the call is transferred to a collection agent who will take matters from there.

You can read more about this story at City to Hire Ex-Cons as Collection Agents.