Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE — Maryland inmates on work duty have long been given a highly visible job: picking up garbage along the state’s highways. Though the work has helped keep shoulders and medians free of litter, corrections officials acknowledge it doesn’t do much to prepare prisoners for life on the outside.
So the state has been trying to detail inmates to public service projects that offer job skills that might help them re-enter society. On Tuesday, state and local officials held a ribbon-cutting to celebrate one such project — the completion of more than 200 new or rebuilt handicapped-accessible curbs in Westminster.
Starting in August, inmates from the Central Maryland Correctional Facility in Sykesville broke up 30-year-old curbs, then prepared the ground for replacements that offer a grooved surface for the blind and ramps that allow wheelchairs and strollers to move from sidewalk to street.
“The inmate is giving back to the community he offended [and] receiving valuable on the job experiences,” said John Rowley, coordinator of the Public Safety Works program for the state corrections department. “The inmate also sees himself actually at work in the community, which makes the transition to work easier.”
On any given day, 488 inmates from institutions across Maryland are out working on projects. Prisoners have aided in the demolition of the old Maryland House of Correction in Jessup, worked on farms, restored parks and helped with road repairs.
Full story: Inmates build curbs for town, gain work skills