Canada’s national corrections agency has stopped a controversial program that uses prison inmates as telemarketers to sell holiday timeshares to U.S. consumers, according to reports.
The government scrapped the program because of privacy and security concerns, according to reports. Part of the program involved inmates collecting personal information from consumers, including names and ages.
Inmates who worked at Corrections Canada’s three prison call centers have been reassigned to other jobs.
Stirred by a trade group report that urged an end to Canada’ prison telemarketing program, opposition members of Parliament attacked Lawrence MacAulay, then Solicitor General and Canada’s top law enforcer, in October over the use of inmates in telemarketing. MacAulay resigned over an unrelated matter.
