Jailer doesn't see need for Work Release program

By Willie Sawyers

It is comforting for taxpayers to see county jail inmates picking up trash along highways, clearing brush, mowing cemeteries and doing other jobs that provide a meaningful benefit to society.

The jail Work Release program works well for everyone. The county gets access to cheap labor to do menial, yet important, jobs such as trash pickup along roads. Taxpayers feel they are getting something in return for the free room, board and medical care they provide the inmates, who in turn get the chance to be outside during the day.

The program has been a integral part of the criminal justice system for decades, going back to the old chain gangs who built many roads in the South. But it’s not important anymore to Laurel County Jailer Jack Sizemore.

The jailer has not provided any inmates for work details in the county since before Christmas. There have been no inmates to pick up trash along roadsides or to help take in garbage at the county’s recycling center.

As a direct result, Laurel County is the dirtiest it has been in years. Trash lines the roads in every corner of the county. Mowing season is here, which threatens to further complicate the problem by shredding the trash into millions of pieces, unless it gets picked up beforehand.

The City of London is spending thousands of dollars to run a crew to pick up trash along city streets and parking lots. This is money the city didn’t have to spend before because the work was done by inmates.

“I get calls almost daily about litter,” Public Works Director Steve Edge said Monday. “We have crews out every day. The amount of money it costs taxpayers to clean up litter is astonishing.”

Edge said Sizemore told him that he didn’t have enough guards to supervise the Work Release program and therefore could not work the inmates.

But that excuse is a bunch of bull, because the city was paying the salary of the guard to supervise the inmates it used to pick up trash. The city probably could pay for two guards and still save money, instead of using its own employees.

Sizemore pulled the guard off of the Work Release program to work inside the jail. This doesn’t make any sense either because the city no longer is subsiding the guard’s salary. The county also has increased its subsidy by $500,000 this year, so there shouldn’t be a manpower shortage at the jail.

The jailer apparently doesn’t care about the Work Release program anymore, or more than likely, doesn’t want to fool with it. It may take a little work or thought on his part.

There is a lot that Sizemore doesn’t want to fool with, like answering questions about the Work Release program or his operation of the jail. He doesn’t answer questions from the media nor does he communicate with city and county officials, who are at a loss to explain the cancellation of the Work Release program.

“We as a court have been asking why it’s been less,” Judge-Executive Lawrence Kuhl said Monday. “We want to address that.”

A meeting was scheduled Monday morning with Sizemore and other officials to discuss upcoming Spring clean up programs, but the jailer canceled at the last minute.

There is no way the city and county can keep the roads free from litter without manpower from the Work Release program. Last year, inmates averaged cleaning up 6.5 miles each day, and picked up an average of 62 bags per day. No wonder the county is the dirtiest it’s ever been.

Meanwhile, the inmates waste away inside the dank jail and Sizemore continues to collect his $86,357 a year salary.

Perhaps the jailer can supervise the Work Release inmates as they pick up trash. He needs to do something to earn all that taxpayer money.

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