There appears to be nothing about "cheap labor" that cities don't like.
Ears perked up recently when the state Department of Corrections said it would be reviving its inmate labor program and that about 40 inmates at the going rate of about $2 a day would soon be available for landscaping and cleanup tasks.
Jenks, Glenpool, Collinsville, Owasso and Tulsa have expressed an interest in the program.
Jenks and Glenpool have already approved DOC contracts.
Due to budget constraints, the DOC canceled its contract last year with Avalon Correctional Services, which housed the community-level beds for offenders on public work crews.
DOC spokesman Jerry Massie said those inmates are now being housed by Avalon at a halfway house at 302 W. Archer St.
Jenks Public Works Director Robert Carr said that Jenks started using nonviolent and non-sexual offenders to supplement its workforce in 2006. It was discontinued in June 2009.
"Since that time, we've really missed those people to support us," he said. "There's a lot of competition with other communities for this type program."
Carr said they are hoping to get a seven-person crew for about $1,170 a month to help them with grounds and right-of-way maintenance, landscaping, weed eating and other jobs.
"The communities in Tulsa area have been hurt by not being able to have the program," Carr said. "That labor pool was very helpful to us."
Carr said they didn't have significant negative issues with inmates in the past and that they had even ended up hiring some of them.
City Manager Mike Tinker said offenders like working in Jenks.
"These folks are convicts, but we treat them with respect," he said.
The inmates do jobs that might not get done otherwise, Tinker said.
He said inmate crews will be useful in cleanup work and renovation projects at the former state Department of Public Safety building, which is planned as the future site for the Police Department.
Deputy Director Ann Domin of the Indian Nations Council of Governments has been in discussions on the issue with DOC Director Justin Jones.
"What this program does is it not only allows cities to have an inexpensive source of labor for maintenance and grounds keeping functions, but it also is really in the best interest of the public as well because it means that inmates are working, rather than sitting in prison cell all day long," Domin said.
"They are being paid very nominal amount but that will help them when they are released, and it prepares them for an actual job when they are released."
Owasso spokeswoman Chelsea Harkins said the city is a strong advocate of the program and will be discussing it in the coming weeks.
"Owasso was the first city in the metropolitan area to benefit from the program. It saved us thousands of dollars over the last 20 years," she said.
Copyright 2011 - Tulsa World, Okla.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
