By Brandi Kruse
MyNorthwest.com
GRANT COUNTY, Wash. — More than 100 minimum-security inmates have begun to pick apples at an orchard in Grant County, helping to fill a shortage of pickers that threatened this year’s crop.
The Olympic Corrections Center offenders work voluntarily under the Department of Correction’s Correctional Industries program. To qualify, offenders are trained to work off-site and have no recent behavior infractions. Sex offenders are not allowed in the program. The 105 offenders began work at the McDougall and Sons Orchard in Quincy on Monday, and will likely stay until Friday.
“Things are going well,” said Danielle Wiles, assistant director of Correctional Industries. “Attitudes are good. Things are positive and our production is good. They’re working as hard as they can with, not only quality, but quantity.”
Full Story: Inmates picking Washington apples on 200-acre orchard