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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. <span style="font-weight: bold">"I don't know why he can't find a job.</span> Maybe employers think he's not suitable or that he's too old."
<span style="font-weight: bold">Taiwan is in recession</span>, 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