By Emily Gillespie
The Columbian
CLARK COUNTY, Wash. — Wearing red shirts, red pants and red hard hats, a group of 10 men trimmed bushes and hauled debris at a rest stop east of Battle Ground on a rainy Wednesday.
The men aren’t volunteering. They are inmates who are part of the Larch Corrections Center community work crew, which contracts with nonprofits and other government agencies to offer low-cost manual labor.
“They view (the work crew) as a privilege because they get to get out of the facility,” said Sgt. Mark Francis, who oversees the work crew program. “They want to be there, they want to give back to the community.”
The program, however, was halted when Larch’s capacity and staff were cut in half in April 2010. Despite facing closure several times, Larch remained open and returned to full capacity. The program was reinstated in January 2011 and inmates went back to work by March of 2011.
And the government agencies that benefit are glad to see the tax-saving program back in full swing.
Full story: Inmates help trim budgets