Inmates at the Taitung Drug Abuser Treatment Center have been recruited to help wash linen for the county’s hotels and hostels, which have seen a surge in domestic tourists.
The inmates, who were hired by a private commercial laundry service on Tuesday, would “help alleviate staff shortages while doing some good by helping the development of the local tourism industry,” the center said.
Domestic tourism has surged this year, as Taiwanese cannot travel abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and hotels in Taitung are booked to 90 percent capacity until September, when schools are to open, Taitung Department of Tourism statistics showed.
Two weeks ago, a large hotel in Taitung City was unable to have its bed sheets, towels, comforters and bathroom mats washed in time by its normal laundry service — which was inundated with work from other hotels — and was forced to send 289 guests to another hotel, the center said.
The center responded by offering 10 of its inmates to be hired by the laundry service to assist with washing, it said.
Domestic tourism has been on the rise nationwide, but Taitung County in particular has seen a surge in tourism as there have been no cases of COVID-19 infection there, center secretary Tseng Sheng-chien (曾盛乾) said.
Working for the laundry service would also put the inmates in touch with a real work environment and the experience of keeping a job, which would better prepare them for their return to society, Tseng said.
Yu Kuo-feng (游國豐), general manager of the laundry service, said that his company is handling linen — as well as bathing robes, towels and rugs — for 1,800 rooms in the county.
Every day the company washes linen from 8am until 4am the following day, he said.
The 10 inmates from the center are a great help in relieving the pressure on his company, which otherwise would have had insufficient workers to handle the workload, he said.
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