Putting jail inmates to work a wise idea
The story and picture on page 2-A of today’s edition is a welcome sight.
In the photo, three female inmates from Warren County Jail are working alongside Urban Forester Nick Kuhn to perform a landscaping project near the city water plant. The story indicates the inmates are on loan from the jail and are planting around 750 day lilies under the direction of Kuhn.
It’s a great idea and one which would be wise to consider for future projects. Using free labor from inmates in Warren County Jail is one way to cut costs when county or city projects are involved.
On any given day, just think of all the manpower sitting inside the jail. Usually there are around 175 people in there.
By and large, these are people with nothing to do but kill time. They rest on their beds, twiddle their thumbs, maybe play cards or help out in the kitchen. For the most part, however, they have nothing to do.
So why not put these folks to work for the betterment of the community? It’s one way they can start to pay back their debt to society and it is probably a welcome relief from the inside of a jail cell.
Obviously, there are issues which would have to be resolved. The program shouldn’t be open to so-called “dangerous” criminals suspected of crimes such as murder. There is also the problem of finding an available deputy or police officer to supervise the inmates while they are performing their work. This could be difficult at times as both the sheriff’s department and city police department don’t generally have officers sitting around.
But the benefits could be significant if, say, one deputy could supervise six or seven inmates while they are working on a project. That would be making favorable use of available resources.
The upcoming plumbing repairs at Warren County Administrative Offices immediately come to mind as a project which might benefit from some extra – and free – workers. If several inmates could be used to speed along repairs, it would be natural to believe it would also save taxpayers’ money.
And since taxpayers are already paying a significant amount of money to keep inmates in jail in the first place, it could be a small way for them to pay us back.
No one likes the idea of inmates loafing around a jail cell while our tax dollars are paying for their food, shelter and medical expenses. If there is a feasible way to recoup some of those expenses through inmate labor, it would certainly be a project worth pursuing. Jail inmates shouldn’t be allowed to get a free ride.