Inmates take to service work

By Karen Blackledge
The Daily Item

June 23, 2009 07:44 am

— DANVILLE — A program in which Montour County prisoners do community service projects to shorten their jail terms has proven successful, county Commissioners Chairman Trevor Finn said Monday.
“When the prisoners and we (commissioners) were cleaning the bridges, a school bus company contractor came by and thought it was a great idea to have the prisoners out working. He plans to bring his buses to the jail to have them washed and possibly waxed,” Finn said at Monday’s prison board meeting. The contractor will pay for the work, he added. The jail conducts a car wash program where inmates wash and wax vehicles.
Prisoners also washed and waxed firetrucks at the Washies Fire Company on Sunday.
“They had the chrome shining like a mirror,” he said.
On Monday, prisoners were doing sanding in a courthouse office.
“Otherwise, we’d have to pay or do it ourselves,” Finn said of the project.
“This has been a tremendous benefit for them to get out of the jail and work instead of sitting behind bars. They are serving the community and I imagine calmer after working all day,” Finn said.
“It’s a great program that we hope to continue to build on,” he said.
Commissioner Jerry Ward said the prisoners have thanked the commissioners for allowing them to do the work. “They are very courteous. Maybe this will give them that extra boost to put them in the right direction,” Ward said.
“The goal is motivation to recover it or develop it,” said Prison Board Chairman President Judge Scott Naus.
The prisoners aren’t paid for their community service work, which allows them to earn credit toward reducing their sentences for each day worked.