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| Prisoner work crews save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars |
| By bangordailynews.com - Mal Leary, Capitol News Service |
| Published: 09/17/2012 |
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AUGUSTA, Maine — Work crews of inmates from state correctional facilities are providing state agencies, as well as local schools and towns, with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of repairs, construction, road work, painting and other maintenance every year. “We use 10 dollars an hour as a value for the labor,” Corrections Commissioner Joe Ponte said in an interview. “We have some jobs we do that are more sophisticated and the labor is worth more than that.” For example, he said, there are work crews that overhaul surplus military vehicles and add tanks to carry water for the Forest Service. He said there are also inmates who make or remake furniture that has been used by the Department of Corrections and other state agencies. “Some of those jobs are worth a lot more than painting a fence or clearing brush,” Ponte said. “If you put a better estimate on the value of the work we could be in the millions of dollars a year.” He said in 2011 the work crews provided 39,201 hours for projects that ranged from remodeling offices to bridge maintenance for the Department of Transportation to clearing snow from the roofs of state and municipal buildings. “It’s a good service, both for the community and for the inmates and crews that go out,” Ponte said. “The inmates feel good about giving back to the community.” He said DOC provides crews for projects whenever they can, but that sometimes a request is denied on the advice of the Attorney General’s Office. “We try to help as much as we can and do every project that we can do,” Ponte said. “We haven’t been able to do all that has been requested.” The agency is on pace to significantly increase the number of hours provided by the inmate work crews. In 2010 there were 22,890 hours of projects provided by the work crews. In the first six months of this year, the crews have provided 21,160 hours of projects. Read More. |
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