By Cynthia Roldán
The State (Columbia, S.C.)
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina legislator plans to introduce a bill that would allow judges to sentence prisoners to work.
Rep. Bill Chumley, R-Spartanburg, along with Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright, unveiled a “state work program,” that calls for nonviolent offenders to work off part of their sentence, according to the Herald-Journal. Legislators hope the proposed bill will save taxpayer money.
It’s unclear how the proposal would differ from current work programs already in place at the S.C. Department of Corrections that allow nearly 16,000 of the 19,000 prisoners to work at some capacity. The bill had not been formally filed with the S.C. House of Representatives as of Monday.
But the Herald-Journal reported that an offender would be sentenced to three to five years – instead spending 15 years in prison – in the state work program. Inmate work would involve 40-hours-a-week jobs that revolve around picking up litter and repairing potholes, the paper reported.
The state prisons department would have to determine whether an inmate is physically, psychologically and emotionally able to do the work, according to WYFF. And inmates would be supervised by corrections officers, though it’s unclear whether the bill addresses the cost of additional manpower or how the agency will boost its staffing numbers to join prisoners on the outside.
“It is going to revolutionize the Department of Corrections and how we do our business,” said Wright, according to WYFF. “It’s going to save the state of South Carolina billions of dollars. I’m telling you.”
©2018 The State (Columbia, S.C.)