Inmate labor to pickup litter catching on in state

LITTLE ROCK Five days a week, weather permitting, a small group of men, all dressed in white with black stripes and an orange vest, walk along the shoulders and grass medians of state highways in Benton County collecting litter and other trash.

Similar scenes take place every workday in Craighead, Garland and Jefferson counties.

The men county jail inmates facing misdemeanor charges or serving time for nonviolent crimes are participating in a pilot program developed by the state Highway and Transportation Department.

The program began last year and reimburses the county $2 for every hour an inmate picks up litter along state roadways.

"Absolutely, it's a good program," said Benton County sheriff's Capt. Hunter Petray, who is the jail administer. "It's good for the prisoners because they get outside and it's good for the citizens to see we're using free labor to pick up the trash. It's a plus for everybody."

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At the urging of Gov. Mike Beebe, the state Department of Community Corrections is developing a similar program to not only address the litter problem but also help reduce state prison overcrowding.

For years, several counties have used inmate labor to clean up litter along the state's highways and byways. To get more counties involved, the state highway department last year began a pilot program that reimburses counties with money and equipment for using inmates clean up the trash. The program costs about $1 million annually, according Deputy Highway Director Ralph Hall.

Under the arrangement, supported by the Association of Arkansas Counties and the Arkansas County Judges Association, the highway department also supplied the trash bags and picked up the bags when full.

"Yes, I'd say it's real successful," Hall said. "Any work at all done at picking up litter is going to be a success."

Benton, Jefferson and Craighead counties have participated in the program since it began in June 2007. Garland County joined earlier this year.

Hall said the program has become so popular he expects the state Highway Commission to be asked to extend it for another year.

So far, the highway department has reimbursed the participating counties just under $200,000, but with more counties expected to join over the next few months that amount will rise, Hall said.

Earlier this year, after receiving calls to his monthly statewide radio show critical of the litter on state highways, Beebe announced a plan to advance parole eligibility dates for some inmates by up to 60 days if they agreed to pick up trash in their communities once paroled.

"This would pretty much be statewide," said Rhonda Sharpe, spokesman for the Department of Community Corrections. "These are people who would be making parole anyway and be sitting in prison 30 to 60 days waiting their parole date. This would be a community service and they would not be paid."

DCC Assistant Director Dan Roberts said he expects the program, which would be supervised by parole officers around the state, to be up and running later this year.

The parolees would do the litter pickup in groups or individually, Sharpe said.

Last week, the Highway Commission signed an agreement in support of the new program and agreed to provide signs, vests and litter bags, and to have the bagged trash removed to a landfill.

"It address the overcrowding issues we have in prison and it also addresses the litter problem that some people have pointed to (the governor) and the highway department," Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said.

State law allows the state Board of Corrections to speed up the parole process through the Emergency Powers Act.

Under the act, which the board can implement every 90 days, inmates who are within three months of their release date and have good behavior can be made immediately eligible for parole.