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| Prisons to charge for inmate work |
| By The Union Democrat |
| Published: 11/24/2003 |
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Come January, labor provided by California's Sierra Conservation Center prison inmate crews that clean up litter, chop weeds and trim trees will no longer be free. Tuolumne and Calaveras county agencies, schools and utility districts that want to have the inmates perform various clean-up jobs and other work will now have to pay $300 a day. That's what the state Department of Corrections says it costs for one correctional officer to supervise each crew. The new cost is a direct result of California's $38 billion budget shortfall and the order that each state agency cut costs by 16 percent. The agencies' representatives are invited to a meeting Friday morning at the O'Byrnes Ferry Road prison to discuss the new charges and ways agencies can team up to share the expense. Ed Wyllie, community development director for the City of Sonora, will also attend the meeting. He said this change will hurt the city's budget. He estimated he would have to hire two full-time employees and a part-time worker to do the jobs inmates have always done for free. Inmate crews have cleaned creek beds and storm drains within city limits and cut brush and weeds along city roads, he said. |
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