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| N.C. Prison Closure Deprives Groups of Inmate Labor |
| By Times-News |
| Published: 09/30/2002 |
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While the Henderson Correctional Center prepares to close, local ministries and public services are trying to adapt to the loss of the 112 inmates held there. The prisoners provided inexpensive labor and volunteer work for Henderson County that will be hard to replace, officials said Tuesday. The N.C. General Assembly passed a $14.3 billion budget Friday. To help offset a $2 billion budget deficit, lawmakers decided to close the 70-year-old Henderson County prison as well as the Blue Ridge Correctional Center in Newland. An exact date for the closure has not been set, but prison officials have discontinued the inmates' work in the community. Lutheran Men in Mission from Grace Lutheran Church had to cancel a community service project because of the closure. The 10 inmate volunteers, who would have helped build homes in Mills River for people with low incomes, instead have to stay inside the prison gates until they are transferred to other facilities. The travel restriction was ordered by prison Superintendent Wayne Spears to help the shutdown process run smoothly. The volunteer work would have been in connection with the Housing Assistance Corp.'s mutual self-help housing program. Housing Assistance is constructing nine homes in the community. Construction director Chad Vanne said the project should be finished in a couple months, but the inmate's work might have shortened that time by one or two weeks. Tom Ballard, who serves on the Social Ministry Committee at Grace Lutheran and volunteers for Prison Fellowship, said this would have been their fourth Housing Assistance project involving inmates. 'The projects were so positive for the church, for the prison and for what prison fellowship is trying to do,' Ballard said. 'It gives the inmates the chance to see that when you're doing something for someone else, with no opportunity that it's going to reward you in any way, you feel good about yourself.' Ballard said the Social Ministry Committee is hoping to get inmate volunteers from the Buncombe Correctional Center for future projects. Both Ballard and Vanne agree that the inmates did good work on the first three jobs, which ranged from building a playground to putting a new roof on the Housing Assistance office. Blue Ridge Prison and Jail Ministries, which is stationed at the Henderson prison, plans to shift its focus in the county from prison to jail ministries. Blue Ridge Prison and Jail Ministries executive board member and Henderson prison chaplain Keith Honeycutt said he has volunteered at the Henderson County Jail since 1992. When he became chaplain in 1998, Honeycutt used volunteers and resources from the prison to help build the jail ministry, he said. 'I have not been able to give myself wholly to the jail ministry because of my responsibilities here, but that is about to change,' Honeycutt said. 'I am confident that this ministry shift will bless the hearts of many people.' Henderson County Sheriff George H. Erwin Jr. called Honeycutt's jail ministry a 'tremendous asset' and said he looks forward to its expanded involvement with his office. 'This will be a learning process for all involved,' Erwin said. The N.C. Department of Transportation is also trying to cope with the loss of free labor. District Engineer Ed Green said the DOT was getting from 25 to 20 inmates a day, five days a week, on eight-hour shifts, and that the inmates made up about 40 percent of their work force. 'It's kind of thrown us in a bind here,' Green said. He worries it will be too expensive to hire enough replacements, with wages beginning at $8.50 to $9 an hour. But major projects will probably not be delayed since the inmates were only maintenance workers, Green said. Other organizations that have benefited from inmate labor include Henderson County Schools, the Henderson County Bus Garage, the U.S. Forest Service and the Transylvania County Landfill. Spears, the prison superintendent, said his inmates spent 37,398 hours on jobs and projects for other agencies last year. |
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