They covered more than 650 miles of Lincoln County roadwaysduring 2002, picking up litter along the way. Now they’re ready toreach an even higher goal this year.

The Lincoln County Jail inmate work crew helped rid the countyof about 197 tons of garbage as they relentlessly went to work dayafter day, rain or shine, last year.

“They’ve gotten to the point where they want to see how muchthey can do. They go out there to work,” said J.R. Beard,supervisor of the inmate work crew.

He admires the way the seven inmates push each other to workharder every day. Beard often laughs at their pleas to work evenwhen the weather is cold and rainy.

“They hate for me to take a day off from work or go on vacationbecause then they can’t work,” said Beard.

The state inmates involved in the program are not paid. They saythe reason they enjoy the work so much comes from seeing how muchof a difference they can make in the county.

Besides the tons of garbage they picked up, filling more than10,000 trash bags, they also rid the roadways of 2,629 tires. Theinmate work crew hauled off 29 loads of white goods as well. Thewhite goods, which includes ovens, refrigerators, washers anddryers, were recycled.

Work crew members enjoy the sense pride they receive fromcleaning the roadways and illegal dump sites, but the ultimatereward for their efforts is having the opportunity to work off someof their sentences. For a whole month of community service, theinmates knock 10 days off their jail time.

“It helps me and it also helps the county. I’m hoping we canexpand and find other ways to help out,” said Chad Stewart, who hasbeen on the work crew for a little over two years.

Stewart believes the opportunity to get out in the real worldeach day will play an important role for him later.

“I get to do a lot of things that will help me readjust tosociety instead of just being thrown back out there,” he said.

The inmates spent 26 work days in and around the Lincoln CountyGovernment complex performing a variety of tasks.

Outside the courthouse, they cut grass, shaped hedges, trimmedtrees and picked up trash. Inside the building, they worked in anumber of the offices cleaning or helping with specialprojects.

“We worked in the archives three or four days getting itstraightened,” said Beard. “And when the new tags came in, we putup shelves and lined up all the tags on the shelves. We’ve alsomoved stuff when needed.”

The inmate work crew spent five days of the year painting andcleaning in the jail, six days putting up 911 posts for elderlyresidents and two days with the DARE program. They also helped moveitems and clean offices for the Mississippi Department ofCorrections, Department of Human Services and Department ofWildlife, Fisheries and Parks.

Taxpayers were saved a little money with the 29 days the inmatesspent working for the Lincoln County board of supervisors.

Work crew members agreed the variety of tasks helps make the dayin, day out work more exciting, but they mostly love to see theimmediate results from picking up garbage along the roadways.

They hit all the main roads in Lincoln County on a regularbasis. The most frequent sites are illegal dumping areas on SouthWashington Street and Williams Street, as well as a long section ofCalifornia Camp Road, which becomes trashed just days after aninmate work day in the area.

Beard, who has worked for the Lincoln County Sheriff’sDepartment for more than 20 years, has noticed the majority of thetrash seems to be within a few miles of Brookhaven.

“It’s like people are getting through eating and throwing theirtrash out then,” said Beard.

Despite the ongoing saga of litterbugs in Lincoln County, Beardhas noticed a difference in the decade of having an inmate workcrew in the area.

“I don’t know what the roads would look like now if Lynn Boytehadn’t started this program,” said Beard. “People don’t seem tocare. They don’t realize that if the inmates weren’t picking up thetrash constantly they could be doing other things to help out inthe county.”

In his years as the inmate work crew supervisor, Beard reportsnot having the first problem. He attributes the strong sense oftrust and honesty among the inmates to the thoroughness that goesinto selecting each one.

“We are very careful how we pick them. First of all, they haveto be non-violent offenders, but we really look at their behaviorand character before we pick them,” he said. “We’ve never had anyattempts to run and I think that’s because of their attitude.”

Besides Beard being armed while watching the inmates, he alsohas close radio contact with the sheriff’s department just incase.