While Annisette stressed the need to preserve the dignity of prisoners involved in the programme, Devenish warned that prison labour must not be used to replace paid workers. Devenish said the proposal raises serious concerns, particularly following the dismissal of thousands of Community-based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP) and Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) workers who previously performed similar public maintenance duties. This raises a fundamental and troubling question—if the work still exists, why were all these thousands of workers be dismissed? “Rehabilitation must never become a substitute for employment nor should prison labour be used to replace workers who have been dismissed from their jobs.” BIGWU said it is challenging the dismissal of CEPEP and URP workers before the Industrial Court, maintaining they were terminated without valid reasons or due process.