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June 18th, 2010
Inmates shorten jail time with outside labor for city
If you're in the Midwest City jail, able-bodied, willing to work and don't have a history of violent crime, you can be a trustee. For years, the jail has used its residents to work at city facilities, picking up trash, gardening, painting and just about any other task that needs to be done. It has saved the city a bundle in labor costs in the process.
Far from forced labor, the trustees are all volunteers who are given the option to trade their view of concrete walls and metal bars for some fresh air. What's in it for the trustees is the opportunity to, in some cases, cut their jail stay in half.
If a person is sentenced to jail for any number of crimes " from driving with a suspended license to shoplifting " and is ordered to spend time in jail and pay fees, the trustee program offers a handsome financial perk. Those working off days must spend the ordered time in jail; those owing fees receive $50 toward those fees for each day of incarceration. If those individuals set out and work as trustees, they receive $100 a day. No money changes hands; that $100 is instead applied toward an individual's fees due to the court.
For the city and the jail, it is not an act of altruism as much as the chance to find labor for minor tasks, which helps take the burden off overstretched city departments. Trustees help Larry Denney, director of golf at the John Conrad Golf Course, and his staff complete maintenance tasks to keep the course and clubhouse looking nice. Trustees have been coming to work at the course for about two years.
"We use them every chance we get," Denney said.
At each site, be that the golf course, a city park or a roadside trash pickup crew, the trustees are in the care of the department they are helping. Lily Krout, Midwest City jail manager, said there is a mutual trust that must be established between the trustees, their employers for the day and jail officials. The jail does not send an officer out to supervise, leaving that in the hands of the host department. In turn, Krout does not send anyone likely to be disruptive, get abusive or make a run for it.
"The ones that are selected are usually for traffic charges, petty larceny and minor crimes," Krout said. "We put our faith in their hands."
Over the years, some trustees have used the program as an opportunity to escape. As Krout sees it, they are only harming themselves by doing so. Those in the Midwest City jail are in for short periods of time. If they escape, they are looking at additional charges and will never be considered for trustee work again. She said most of the trustees enjoy the opportunity to expedite their release.
"They're not going to be spending years here," she said. "They just want to do their time and get out of here."
Numbers can vary as to how much the city saves by using trustee labor. As long as there are trustees and work to do, the jail dispatches them five days a week for roughly eight-hour shifts. If the city employed a person to work a 40-hour week at the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, that person would draw a salary of roughly $15,080 for a year. Rather than create those positions and salaries, city departments can keep their money and tap into trustee labor.
"It saves me a lot of money," Denney said.
Unfortunately, Krout said she sees a lot of familiar faces that have been in jail on and off for years. Others come in once or twice, work, do their time and take care of their fees, and that's the last she sees of them. She is unsure who coined the term "trustee," but said it is fitting and gives denizens of the jail a bit of dignity while they set out in orange, jail-issued jumpsuits for a day of work.
On a recent afternoon, two female trustees were at work in the gardens at John Conrad. One of them, Rhianna Webb, was spending a few weeks for driving under the influence and for a hit-and-run. It was her first time working as a trustee. She found out about the program from some other women in the jail and jumped at the chance to shorten her stay.
"It's great," she said. "You get your fines paid off quicker, and you get out quicker."
photo above Trustee Rhianna Webb works on landscaping at the John Conrad Golf Course.
photo below Jail trustees perform landscaping duties at the John Conrad Golf Course. Photos/Mark Hancock
Far from forced labor, the trustees are all volunteers who are given the option to trade their view of concrete walls and metal bars for some fresh air. What's in it for the trustees is the opportunity to, in some cases, cut their jail stay in half.
If a person is sentenced to jail for any number of crimes " from driving with a suspended license to shoplifting " and is ordered to spend time in jail and pay fees, the trustee program offers a handsome financial perk. Those working off days must spend the ordered time in jail; those owing fees receive $50 toward those fees for each day of incarceration. If those individuals set out and work as trustees, they receive $100 a day. No money changes hands; that $100 is instead applied toward an individual's fees due to the court.
For the city and the jail, it is not an act of altruism as much as the chance to find labor for minor tasks, which helps take the burden off overstretched city departments. Trustees help Larry Denney, director of golf at the John Conrad Golf Course, and his staff complete maintenance tasks to keep the course and clubhouse looking nice. Trustees have been coming to work at the course for about two years.
"We use them every chance we get," Denney said.
At each site, be that the golf course, a city park or a roadside trash pickup crew, the trustees are in the care of the department they are helping. Lily Krout, Midwest City jail manager, said there is a mutual trust that must be established between the trustees, their employers for the day and jail officials. The jail does not send an officer out to supervise, leaving that in the hands of the host department. In turn, Krout does not send anyone likely to be disruptive, get abusive or make a run for it.
"The ones that are selected are usually for traffic charges, petty larceny and minor crimes," Krout said. "We put our faith in their hands."
Over the years, some trustees have used the program as an opportunity to escape. As Krout sees it, they are only harming themselves by doing so. Those in the Midwest City jail are in for short periods of time. If they escape, they are looking at additional charges and will never be considered for trustee work again. She said most of the trustees enjoy the opportunity to expedite their release.
"They're not going to be spending years here," she said. "They just want to do their time and get out of here."
Numbers can vary as to how much the city saves by using trustee labor. As long as there are trustees and work to do, the jail dispatches them five days a week for roughly eight-hour shifts. If the city employed a person to work a 40-hour week at the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, that person would draw a salary of roughly $15,080 for a year. Rather than create those positions and salaries, city departments can keep their money and tap into trustee labor.
"It saves me a lot of money," Denney said.
Unfortunately, Krout said she sees a lot of familiar faces that have been in jail on and off for years. Others come in once or twice, work, do their time and take care of their fees, and that's the last she sees of them. She is unsure who coined the term "trustee," but said it is fitting and gives denizens of the jail a bit of dignity while they set out in orange, jail-issued jumpsuits for a day of work.On a recent afternoon, two female trustees were at work in the gardens at John Conrad. One of them, Rhianna Webb, was spending a few weeks for driving under the influence and for a hit-and-run. It was her first time working as a trustee. She found out about the program from some other women in the jail and jumped at the chance to shorten her stay.
"It's great," she said. "You get your fines paid off quicker, and you get out quicker."
photo above Trustee Rhianna Webb works on landscaping at the John Conrad Golf Course.
photo below Jail trustees perform landscaping duties at the John Conrad Golf Course. Photos/Mark Hancock
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