Steve Bloom/The Olympian
Thurston County work crew supervisor Wayne Dschaak walks with crew member Michael Barrett as he picks up litter along Old Highway 99 west of Tenino.

Trash crews might get help from inmates

LIONA TANNESEN, THE OLYMPIAN

LACEY -- Lacey is considering using jail inmate crews to help the Public Works Department.

"We're really in the preliminary stages," said Troy Oestreich, Lacey operations manager.

The city would use the inmates to do labor such as picking up litter and cleaning and edging sidewalks.

The city would join Thurston County, Animal Services and the Yelm and Tenino school districts.

Yelm also plans to have inmates refurbish buildings at city parks.

"Some of the advantages are that for the investment of one person, they are able to leverage the labor of anywhere from two to five other people in doing a lot of unskilled work," Oestreich said.

The plan is not without complications.

Staffing projects ahead of time might be difficult, because the number of inmates available for work changes regularly.

The city would not be charged by the county for the inmates' labor, but the city would be responsible for providing supervisors.

In 2000, inmates put in 40,736 hours of labor, said Mark Bolton, county jail associate administrator.

"If you put a price tag on that, if taxpayers had to pay for the work they'd done, it would be right around $265,000," Bolton said. Numbers weren't available for 2001.

The inmates picked up litter, moved furniture, pulled weeds, cleaned cages for Animal Services, painted and did other projects.

Inmates must meet guidelines before they are allowed to participate in a work crew.

They must be sentenced and be minimum security; and their records must be completely free of sex offenses, and free of Class A felonies for at least five years. They are subject to random drug tests, Bolton said.

The inmates wear blue shirts that say "Sheriff's Office work crew" so people know who they are, Bolton said.

The program -- started in the late 1980s and expanded in 1992 under Sheriff Gary Edwards' leadership -- has had few problems, Bolton said.

Two inmates escaped during the past two years, and both were caught the same day and charged with escape, Bolton said.

"And there have been literally thousands assigned," Bolton said. "That's a pretty good track record."

Crews assigned to projects near schools work on weekends and in the summer, when students aren't around, Bolton said.

The biggest work crew is assigned to picking up litter.

Last year, the adult inmates picked up more than 6,000 bags of garbage on nearly 1,000 miles of road shoulders.

The crews of up to five inmates usually are supervised by one person, said Steve Granger, the county community service coordinator for the Department of Roads & Transportation Services.

The crews usually work six hours a day.

Granger said his agency hasn't had any problems with the work crews.

"They've done a really good job," Granger said. "You couldn't get the public to do the job they're doing. It's really back-breaking. They really work hard and do an excellent job."

Liona Tannesen covers Lacey and courts for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5427.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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