Eight inmates at the Powder River Correctional Facility will have a chance to more than double their monthly earnings by working in a new call center that opened May 7 at the minimum-security prison in Baker City.

The call center operated by Oregon Corrections Enterprises, the semi-independent agency that runs a variety of job programs inside state prisons, has eight cubicles for Powder River inmates.

There are about 260 men housed at the prison now, about 26 below its capacity, said Joey Cockram, administrative services manager.

Powder River, at 3600 13th St., opened in 1989. It employs about 100 — 80 Department of Corrections employees and about 20 from New Directions Northwest who run the drug and alcohol treatment program in the prison.

Inmate Galvan Lomboy said on May 13 that he worked for several years in the call center at Snake River Correctional Institution near Ontario.

Tina Benson, production manager for Oregon Corrections Enterprises, said Lomboy and one other inmate were transferred from Snake River to Powder River to help start the call center at the Baker City prison.

Benson said inmates typically earn about $60 per month if they work in the kitchen, in building maintenance or other jobs.

Those who work in Oregon Corrections Enterprises jobs, including the call center, generally make $130 a month, and they can also boost that to around $230 or $240 a month if they meet goals, Benson said.

Cockram said jobs in the new call center are coveted, and inmates who are interested have to apply with Valeria Pimentel, work program coordinator at Powder River.

To be eligible, inmates must have good behavior records and be in the general population rather than in the drug and alcohol treatment program, Cockram said. The treatment program involves daily meetings, which conflicts with the call center, which is a full-time weekday job, with hours of 7:30 a.m. to 3:40 p.m., she said.

The goal of the call center, and other Oregon Corrections Enterprises programs, is to help inmates gain skills they can potentially use to find jobs after their release, both Cockram and Benson said.

Inmates in other prisons build cabinets, chairs and other furniture, build signs, run print centers and do other work.

OCE has run call centers since about 2013. The new center at Powder River joins others at Snake River, Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton, Warner Creek Correctional Facility in Lakeview and Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Madras, Benson said.

Lomboy said inmates at the Powder River call center will be calling large companies to offer information about a product used to seal roofs in metal buildings.

Benson said OCE contracts with a client in Michigan for the service.

Cockram said the Powder River call center has security measures that ensure inmates can’t use phones for any purpose other than to make the sales calls.

An AI program, for instance, monitors all calls for key words and phrases that aren’t typically used for the sales calls, she said.

Lomboy said he has improved his communication skills considerably through his work at the call center at Snake River and, now, at Powder River.

He said he knows three former inmates from Snake River who used the skills they acquired to find jobs after release.

“A lot of people would like this job,” Lomboy said.