Inmate work crews save Lincoln County thousands of dollars withtheir free labor, according to officials, and plans are to expandthat program as quickly as possible.

“These work programs are nothing but a positive thing for thecounty,” said Lincoln County Sheriff Wiley Calcote. “They can savethe county a lot of money, and there’s no sense in letting themjust sit there getting fat and watching TV when they could be doingsomething good with their time here.”

The county has 30 inmates in the work crew program, providing avariety of services to state and federal buildings andprojects.

The inmates gather each morning in the jail and are given theirdaily assignments, which are changed often to prevent then fromforming a routine.

Tasks they can be assigned include the state and county littercontrol programs, clean up and general maintenance at Lake LincolnState Park, construction work on the jail kitchen, courthousegreeter, the maintenance on the grounds of the courthouse andDepartment of Human Services.

“We also have a number of them assigned to the countysupervisors for their daily use as they see fit,” Calcote said.

Additionally, inmates will soon be assisting city work crews bycleaning and weeding curbs and sidewalks, said Joe Price,administrative assistant to the sheriff.

Work crews also began last week to polish and wax the floors ofthe courthouse, DHS, Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks,and the law enforcement offices and facilities. Previously, thefloor work was contracted out to the lowest bidder on an annualbasis.

“That alone is a savings of about $28,000 a year for thecounty,” Price said.

The total savings to the county is hard to figure, Calcote said,but it is substantial.

“We don’t have any figures until the end of the quarter, butwe’re literally saving thousands of dollars using this free labor,”he said.

Calcote said the reason the program works is because the laboris free, the inmates want to work, and there are no additionalsupervisory salaries.

Benefits to the inmate are few, but demand to join the programis high, he said.

“If the judge orders it, they can lessen their sentence by days.If the judge doesn’t order them to participate, they don’t,” hesaid. “It just gives them something to do. It’s a big moralebooster,” Calcote said.

There are some advantages to being approved for the work crews,Price said. Inmates on the crew have demonstrated regret for theircrimes and a desire to do better in the future. Therefore, he said,they are rewarded for their work with slightly better livingquarters.

Instead of living in communal cellblocks with no privacy and onetelevision set, work crew inmates live in a semi-private cell andare allowed their own TV. Additionally, they are allowed to storesome food bought through the jail commissary.

Despite their seeming desire to improve, the inmates are notleft unsupervised at any work site, Price said. At their morningbriefing, they are picked up by selected employees from the worksite and signed out. When the employee returns with them at the endof work day, around 3 p.m., they are signed back into the custodyof the jail.

“No additional employees are paid to watch over them,” Calcotesaid. “Periodically, myself, Joe (Price) or another deputy willcheck on them also. They are definitely not left anywhereunsupervised. Someone is always there to watch over them.”

The inmates are also screened carefully before being admitted tothe program, Price said. Only non-violent offenders are eligible.Anyone accused of a violent or sexual crime is automaticallyexcluded.

The most common offenses of inmates on the work crews includeprobation violations, drunk driving, check fraud and failure to paychild support, Price said.

“There are a few out there on drug charges, but they don’t poseany threat to anyone,” Calcote said.

The sheriff admitted allowing some inmates into the program is ajudgment call. Each person is monitored carefully from the timethey are brought to the jail. When they express an interest in theprogram, those notes are consulted. If they are approved, they willwork for several weeks around the jail while being evaluatedfurther for the outside work crews.

“We don’t make them do this stuff,” Calcote said. “They come andask us. I have letters after letters from them begging to be on it.Not everyone passes the evaluation.”

Calcote hopes to expand the program beyond the 30 currentlyenrolled, but he said there are limits to the number of inmates thejail is allowed to work.

“We’re about to reach the number we can have under stateguidelines,” he said.

He plans in the near future to apply for an expansion of theprogram. Until then, however, he will continue to work as manyinmates as he can.