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Today the business has around 50 workers across three Peruvian jails, two male and one female, and makes around 1,000 garments a week. A not-for-profit enterprise, the prisoners earn a commission from the sale of each item they make.<\/p>\n
Those that get involved need not have any prior experience of clothing manufacturing, and the crimes for which they are serving their sentences range from petty theft to murder.<\/p>\n
Pieta now has three stores in Lima, but most of the clothes – which since the coronavirus outbreak include face masks – are sold via its website. It gets most of its international orders from Australia, the US, and other countries in South America.<\/p>\n
The prisons are paid equivalent to the Peruvian minimum wage, but Mr Jacob says that he did not base production in the jails to save money.<\/p>\n
“The textile industry in Peru is quite well developed, and because we have a fairly large production, we could reduce our costs significantly if we moved outside the prison,” he says.<\/p>\n
“But I don’t want to exploit people and make them feel bad. We are a social project, and it would not serve any purpose if we moved the production.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n