It’s no fun being badgered by run-of-the-mill PR bods. Spam emails, phones ringing off the hook, in-tray groaning under the weight of press releases. But I won’t nasty to these guys any more; you see they could be criminals.

Summit Media is a digital marketing agency unlike any other. The office is based within the bars of category C prison HMP Wolds and, of the 46 staff, 20 are prison inmates.

It’s an interesting set-up. The firm advertises in Inside Time (the monthly rag for British jailbirds) and around ten cons vie for an interview every month. Only a couple of inmates ever make it through the application process. Bizarrely, murderers tend to make the cut, but paedophiles and rapists need not apply.

Once they join the Summit team, the yardbirds get put through an intensive e-commerce training course and take an exam with the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. Then they become fully-fledged members of the PR pack, armed with a phone and an email account, ready to bring in the business.

Albeit for a cut-rate salary – prisoners are only allowed to earn £35 a week inside. And they pay tax. Summit’s clients include some pretty big hitters too: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Argos and Panasonic all fork out for their services. Last year the firm turned over £17m.

But it’s not all about cheap labour and intimidation. This is an altruistic endeavour.

Hedley Aylott, who founded Summit Media in 2000 says: “Of the 250 offenders that have worked as part of the team at Summit since its creation seven years ago, we know of only 10 that have reoffended. Compared to the national average of 75 per cent, this is what you call raising the bar.”

Aylott’s cleaning up the streets! Turning hardened criminals into stars of public relations! Not that that there was a world of difference between the two beasts to begin with... (jokes).

But the next time I get a PR call on behalf of Microsoft, I’m going to keep my acerbic tongue in check. The guy on the end of the line may have killed for less…

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By Carmen Snipes  on   Nov 07,2008

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Keywords

prison    PR    marketing    small business    crime    media   

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