2/22/2011
Reed Hollinshead
ITD Communication
208-334-8881
reed.hollinshead@itd.idaho.gov
Use of inmate labor an efficiency measure for ITD and Idaho taxpayers
BOISE -
State budgets are tight, and any cost savings are
significant. Partnerships are one way to achieve those savings. That's why a report
of another 6,200 lbs. of trash sitting in the landfill is actually good news.
Generally speaking, more garbage along the
highway or anywhere else - is never good news. But litter collection is one
task that the Idaho Transportation Department uses inmate labor for, and the
partnership has been a boon for ITD, IDOC (Idaho Department of Corrections),
the inmates themselves and Idaho taxpayers.
It was Canyon County Inmate labor crews who collected that trash for the Canyon County Sheriff's Office along a six-mile stretch of westbound I-84 by Nampa/Caldwell in late January. Besides litter pick-up, inmate labor crews also are used by ITD for vehicle maintenance, grounds-keeping, sign and guardrail repair, traffic control, yard and building maintenance, plowing parking lots and shoveling snow. The use of inmate labor to accomplish some of these tasks, at a significantly reduced wage, is another example of ITD's efficiency measures.
Click herefor photos of the litter pick-up detail.
ITD pays IDOC $7 to $8.50 per hour per inmate,
plus mileage on the department's vans and the travel time and overtime for the
IDOC officer in charge. ITD is making the most of available resources, and it
is not costing anything extra to Idaho taxpayers - good news on both accounts. IDOC provides tools and
equipment for the inmates, plus necessary training (traffic-control certification, for
instance).
"It's more than just a matter of savings," said
Dan Bryant, maintenance supervisor of ITD's Southwest Idaho region. "If
we did not have the inmates, we could not hire more people to do that work. The
biggest part of that budget would simply disappear."
In other words, it is not so much a matter of
savings generated, but rather efficiency. If ITD was unable to use inmate
labor, the department would simply not hire people, and that work would go
undone.
?
"We can get a lot of work done in much less time," Bryant
explained. "If you did equate that half million dollars (the budgeted
amount for the region is $525,000) into full-time wages, what would it come to
with benefits? For that same amount, we can get 32 inmates to help
us. Not full time, but when it counts."
The program has been in place for nearly 20 years
and has been a great benefit to both state agencies, as well as the inmates themselves.
"I personally
know of several folks that, after they got out of prison, have gone on to jobs
that our training helped them with," Bryant said. "I have heard that the inmates
benefit greatly from the work experience, the chance to interact with our crews
and that the money they earn gives them a boost when they get out of the
penitentiary."? ?
"From my point of view, the areas that the
inmates help us the most is in traffic control, which frees ITD equipment operators
to run machinery and work on the technical aspects of maintenance, and in
hand-work such as fence repair and guardrail repair," said Bryant.
"A crew of inmates can turn a lot of wrenches in
a very short time," he said. "If we have the replacement parts on hand, an inmate
crew working with our crews can replace a considerable amount of damaged
guardrail in a day."