Inmate community work program is a win-win deal

HANK DEWALD, HERALD STAFF WRITER

ROANOKE RAPIDS - Their glowing yellow work vests were visible all around the new Fire Station No. 2 Tuesday.

The inmates' garb created a sharp contrast to the firefighters' gray or blue T-shirts. Without the prisoners' assistance, the firefighters would not have completed their firehouse move in one day.

Minimum security inmates from Tillery Correctional Center were participating in a community work program that provides free inmate labor to just about any governmental agency that submits a request.

Their work for fire station No. 2 in Roanoke Rapids appeared to be going too quickly last Tuesday, as the inmates hauled a load of weight room equipment off their truck and were ready to make another trip in just minutes.

“The guys love it,” said Randy Wrenn, a correctional officer at Tillery overseeing the work at the fire station. According to Wrenn, the inmates only earn 70 cents per day, but more importantly, they earn “gain time.”

“Gain time” is just what it sounds like. It is time subtracted from the inmate's sentence, which gains them time in the real world. Depending on how much they work, an inmate can earn up to six days per month off his sentence, unless he is already at his minimum. There is a limit.

What is more important to most of the inmates is just getting back into a normal work environment, outside prison, one of the inmates said. It's not easy to get on one of the four work squads, either. Any misbehavior or breaking of rules keeps inmates out of the program, and any behavioral problems at a work site will end their participation.

The program started at Tillery in 1994 and quickly grew to seven work squads. That was cut down to only litter crews, those crews seen walking down the roads picking up trash, during a re-organization of the state prison system.

The community work program at Tillery now has grown back up to four squads, and they can be seen just about anywhere within a 35-mile limit of the prison.

“We put some hours in,” said Wrenn. “We've worked for the water department, the town of Enfield and many others.”