I.Business：
Operations of the Business Section

1. Matters handled by the Business Section:
2. Guidance and skills training for operations.
3. Operational category selection and operational project establishment.
4. Procurement, balance of payments, and safekeeping of operational materials.
5. Operational course preparation, performance evaluation, and labor compensation calculation.
6. Allocation and transfer of inmate operations.
7. Operational contract drafting.
8. Addition, dispatch, safekeeping, checking and maintenance of operational machinery.
9. Evaluation, sale and safekeeping of finished products.
10. Management of operators’ dispatch and evaluation.
11. Other relevant operations.

II.Business introduction:

The prime directives of prison operations are to teach inmates life skills, develop their habit of being hard working, and help them accommodate to social life. The inmate operations and skill training currently implemented in the prison are divided into three categories:

A.Contracted processing operations

The prison has 12 operational workshops, among which 10 of them are labor processing workshops. Most of the income is from processing operations contracted with firms. Labor processing operations include hook chain, identification band, whistle band, watchband, paper bag, bath sponge, tailoring, and laundering. In addition to increasing labor income, these operations can allow inmates to learn skills. The prison is devoted to enhancing operational business to ensure income stability and life quality of inmates.

B.Self-employed operation

Self-employed operations in the prison currently include printing, carpentry, artwork, tailoring, food and agriculture. Contract subjects are internal and external organizations (including cooperative stores of correctional institutions) or companies and employees of the prison. We also accept commissioning by those on the outside to manufacture a variety of finished products for self-employed operations.

C.Skill training

Skill training includes classes for solar photovoltaic maintenance and operation, marketing and furniture carpentry, marketing and pottery, marketing and woodcarving, marketing and gardening, and marketing and baking. The marketing and pottery class, taught by a master, has created a great variety of works that have received excellent reviews from outside guests. The works have been exhibited in different locations, including Yunlin County Cultural Center, Chiayi City Cultural Center, Zhongyuan Culture Festival at Huwei, Mei-Ling Fine Arts Museum, SOGO Taichung, Dream Mall Kaohsiung, Living Mall in Taipei City, Chenggong Elementary School in Linnei Township, Tainan Municipal Jhongyi Elementary School, and Dongshi Fisherman’s Wharf.

D.Inheritance of traditional craftsmanship – one characteristic for one prison

The characteristic that can most exalt the prison is the currently well-known pottery skill training, particularly our pieces of Cochin ceramics. The traditional folk craftsmanship was determined by the Ministry of Justice to be at the verge of loss in 2005, so it was necessary for the skill training class to go on. The class has received recognition from superiors since its set up over a decade ago.

In order to celebrate the completion of a new building at the Chiayi District Prosecutors Office, inmates began to build the largest pottery figure of Guan Yu in the nation under the guidance of a skill training teacher, Mr. Sheng-Nan Lu. It took 18 months to finish this enormous Cochin ceramic figure of Guan Yu, which was 180cm tall and weighed over 1,000kg. The pottery class completed the assembling of the large figure in January of 2008, and gave it to the Chiayi District Prosecutors Office as a gift to be displayed as a public art work in the new building. The warden indicated that the figure was not only a rare public art work, but also the largest Cochin ceramic figure in the nation, and it deserved to be in the Guinness World Records.

In order to extend the traditional folk craftsmanship of Cochin ceramics, the prison asked Mr. Sheng-Nan Lu in 2010 to lead the inmates in the creation of a Guan Yu figure. The enormous Guan Yu figure, which was 180cm tall and weighed over 1,000kg, was completed. It was sent to Yujheng Museum of Chiayi Prison to be displayed permanently on September 7, 2011. The purpose for this was to exhibit the results of our skill training, and to show our capability in handling the visibility of a traditional folk craftsmanship that was on the verge of loss.

Display of self-employed (skill training) work

The essence of folk craftsmanship – Cochin ceramics, Yunlin Prison

Cochin ceramics originated from Fujian and Guangdong, and was introduced in Taiwan during the Daoguang and Xianfeng periods in the Qing Dynasty. Developed in Chiayi, Cochin ceramics is a low-temperature polychromatic glazed earthenware that combines sculpting, color glazing and firing. This craftsmanship integrates opera literature, historical stories or mythical legends in the works, thus it can be said to be the essence of folk craftsmanship.

In order to extend the traditional Cochin ceramics craftsmanship, the prison started the pottery skill training class in 1995 and hired Mr. Sheng-Nan Lu, a winner of Cultural and Arts Inheritance Award and a Cochin ceramics master, to instruct the inmates. The outstanding training results have allowed Cochin ceramics craftsmanship to be deeply rooted and developed in the prison, as well as allow inmates to be equipped with a skill and give the craftsmanship new life.

The prison was designated by the Ministry of Justice in 2005 as one of the 10 correctional institutions in the nation to extend a traditional craftsmanship that was on the verge of loss, and our training results have been recognized by various disciplines. Under the support and value of successive wardens, the outstanding training results have allowed Cochin ceramics craftsmanship to be deeply rooted and developed in the prison, allowing inmate to be equipped with a skill, and ensuring the extension of the dying traditional Cochin ceramics craftsmanship. Procurement inquiry hotline: 05-6339660 Ext. 555 or 05-6324273, Business Section, Yunlin Prison.