Jobless ex-con asks for more prison time

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TAIPEI (Reuters) – A jobless Taiwan man released from prison two years ago asked police to send him back so he could eat, police and local media said Tuesday, a grim sign of hard economic times on the island.

When police found the 45-year-old convicted arsonist lying on a street in a popular Taipei shopping district, he requested a return to life behind bars, nostalgic for the 10 years he had already served, the China Post newspaper reported.

Wang had also contacted police separately with his request, a spokesman said. Officers who found him bought him a boxed lunch but declined to send him back to prison, the police spokesman said.

"We advised him to keep looking for work," he said. "I don't know why he can't find a job. Maybe employers think he's not suitable or that he's too old."

Taiwan is in recession, with a slump in exports leading a record economic contraction in the fourth quarter of last year. Economists see more weakness through most of 2009, given falling demand for Taiwan's electronics goods in overseas markets.

(Reporting by Ralph Jennings in Taipei; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Pfft he should just commit another crime to get sent back to prison. That's the way to do it.

Not many employers hire someone who can't keep his clothes and his body clean, or who lacks a home address.

All the more reason to support and build more public housing (other than the skyscraper type ones in the past).

I heard in our country, there are shelters for homeless people. I think it's where they go and get fed and get clothes and bath and it's where they can go get a job because they will be clean and bathed and have clothes and have address and phone number. Is that how it works?