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Pocono News Section
Prison Inmates Make Most Of Work Release
Prison Inmates Make Most Of Work Release - Wednesday, September 12, 2007 at 6:36PM EST
Wednesday, Sep 12, 2007 @06:36pm EST
Cleaning up churches,
trimming the shrubs, and painting fences around city buildings,l
something you'd expect a
janitor or maintenance man to do.
But some unlikely people
prison inmates are doing those jobs in Wayne County.
Cutting bushes around
the national guard armory here in Honesdale.
It's how inmates in Wayne County prison's work release
program are spending their afternoons.
Wayne county prison warden
Craig Chalmers says,
"we think we can
make a difference by letting them come out here and have some positive self
improvement, do something good for the community so when the community recieves
them back, they'll think well of them."
Chalmers says his
prison's work release program is different.
Rather than picking up
trash on a highway, teams of 6 to 10 inmates repair county buildings, bridges,
and help non-profit groups.
He says it's a way to
help rehabilitate inmates, so does the corrections officer who watches over
them.
Wayne county corrections
officer Joseph Scudillo
"one gentleman got
out, and never painted before in his life. So we taught him how to paint and I
see him about 7 or 8 months after he got out and he opened his own
business."
Here's a project inmates
just finished, Christ Episcopal Church in Indian Orchard.
And with a fresh coat of
paint, and re-calked windows, church members say it saved them thousands of
dollars."
Church member Barbara Filipowski
"if it wasn't for
the program that took care of our church, we would never have been able to
afford it. It must have saved us 20 thousand dollars or more."
Chalmers says the group
helps clean flood debris from Wayne County owned bridges.
That's a move he says
saves the county money, and helps turn some inmates lives around.
The Wayne county jail warden says
not every inmate is eligible for this work release program.
Those who qualify earn
one day off their sentence for every 3 days worked. | |
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