County Jail institutes work program

Spartanburg inmates clean roadsides, work around facility

Having spent 27 of his 52 years behind bars and made five escapes, Boyd fine knows the meaning of stir crazy.

Having been around in the days of chain gangs, Fine also knows the benefits of keeping inmates busy with work.

"To get out of the cell and be doing something - idle time is the devil's workshop," he said.

that's why he is enthusiastic about a new program at the Spartanburg County Detention Facility that has some inmates working eight hours a day around the jail and picking litter up from roadsides.

"It helps the mental state of mind of the inmate himself," said Fine, who is currently in jail awaiting trial for charges of driving under the influence and driving under suspension.

Roughly 90 percent of the inmates in the Spartanburg county jail are people who are waiting to go to trial but unable to make bond.  Until recently, inmates had no option but to while away days, weeks and months sitting around watching TV or reading in their cells.

Since they have not been found guilty of any crime, they cannot be forced to work because that is considered a form of punishment. But they can volunteer for work, said Detention facility director Larry Powers, who read about a similar program in another state and decided to try it here.

"We've known for a long time that if you just leave them in the cell and don't give them anything to do they find things to do, mischief to get into," Powers said.

The 2-week-old work program now has pretrial inmates doing laundry, washing dishes and performing other chores around the jail and courthouse. Inmates serving sentences, and who used to perform those tasks, are now working on road crews picking up litter.

In exchange for participating in the program, the inmates get special privileges, including more freedom to walk around and use telephones.

Although a relatively small number of the 270-some inmates in the jail are participating in the program, it is off to a good start, Powers said.

Following a screening process, 34 pretrial inmates who volunteered to work were accepted for the program and now work around the jail. Ten inmates serving sentences are working on the road crew, and about 10 more work around the courthouse.

"So far, it's been received real well by inmates," Powers said.

Working eight hours a day, seven days a week, the road crew is able to clean about 30 roadsides a week. In the past two weeks, the crew has cleaned 45 roads, he said.

For Fine, who does laundry for eight hours every day, the work is a welcome relief from the monotony of jail. "Just sitting around gets boring after a while."

Fine also sees it as a duty of the inmates now in the program to make it work.

"It will be up to the inmates to make or break it.  Our doing right for this program will benefit others later," he said.

It's reminiscent of the old chain gang, and it is a concept that has been gaining popularity in the past few years, said Fred Wenz, professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina at Spartanburg.

"This is the rebirth of an old idea," Wenz said.

"In the last five or so years, our correctional system has resurrected this concept of keeping detainees active in order to bolster their self-esteem and keep their minds off other things, such as getting in trouble within the four walls," he said.

It's a notion that seems to have strong support among the public, many of whom don't understand why inmates don't always work. But they also don't understand that someone who hasn't been sentenced for a crime can't be forced to work, Powers said.

Wenz said the concept could be expanded even further, by putting inmates to work at more skilled tasks, such as fixing up dilapidated houses for low-income or elderly people, he said.

"At least we're getting something in return for our tax money," he said.