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August 04, 2007
Editorial: Prison work crews are well worth state expense
Prisoners get $2.50 a day!
Editorial
Free Press
Detroit
Prison work crews are well worth state expense
August 3, 2007
A shortsighted cut in the use of work crews from state prisons will cost communities throughout Michigan millions of dollars. The crews perform necessary jobs for local governments and nonprofit agencies, such as mowing grass, painting, shoveling snow, planting flowers, digging graves, cleaning up state parks and removing brush.
August 3, 2007
A shortsighted cut in the use of work crews from state prisons will cost communities throughout Michigan millions of dollars. The crews perform necessary jobs for local governments and nonprofit agencies, such as mowing grass, painting, shoveling snow, planting flowers, digging graves, cleaning up state parks and removing brush.
The work gets done on the cheap. Contracting agencies pay the state $15 a day for each worker -- $2.50 of which goes to the inmate.
MDOC is halting the work crews effective Aug. 17 as part of a plan to cut $92 million in spending. But this move saves just $6 million -- chump change in the department's nearly $2-billion budget.
Even in a budget crisis, keeping this program alive is a no-brainer. Legislators should restore prison work crew funding for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
If they don't, dozens of communities that relied on the 208 canceled crews will lose. So will the Department of Corrections and the 2,000 minimum-security inmates who did the work.
The program reduced prison idleness and taught skills, responsibility and a work ethic to inmates who were close to their release dates. Scrapping the program runs counter to the goals of the state's much touted prisoner re-entry program.
For some inmates, a work crew was their first job and a chance to contribute to society. Agencies around the state report that inmates did excellent work. Now, some of the jobs simply won't get done. Hikers and others enjoying outdoor recreation will see the difference.
The small help these cuts would give the Department of Corrections are far outweighed by the damage done to municipalities and nonprofit agencies. Legislators and the governor ought to see the bigger picture.
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Posted by lois at August 4, 2007 01:25 PM