JSO prohibiting inmates from working in crime-ridden areas without supervision

[thelakelander]

By Christopher Hong

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office barred the city from using inmate labor in dozen areas of town, saying those areas are too crime ridden to allow inmates into them without police supervision.
The Sheriff's Office decided in November that the city's public works supervisors trained to lead crews of inmates could no longer take them within a 1-mile radius of 31 areas throughout the city because contraband was being smuggled into jails afterward.

Public Works Director Jim Robinson said he was told the areas, most of which center around residential complexes, were hot spots for drug or gang activity.

Robinson said the inmates clean ditches that can't be accessed by machinery, freeing up city employees to do other work. Without proper maintenance, the ditches will not work properly and become eyesores for residents, he said.

The inmate crews can usually perform more work because they have more workers than a typical city work crew, he said.

Robinson said he doesn't know the exact impact of the Sheriff's Office decision, but it's clear less work's getting done on the ditch clearing projects. Another concern, he said, is that the prohibited areas contain some of the city's most nagging drainage problems.

"If we had to pick the worst place for it, it couldn't have been picked any worse," Robinson said. "We're slowing down on productivity, but as far as dollars and cents or days behind, we really haven't crunched those numbers."

Full article: http://jacksonville.com/news/2015-01-22/story/jso-prohibiting-inmates-working-crime-ridden-areas-without-police-supervision

[SbahnInJax]

I'm reminded of a quote from The Wire: "Hell, if you can't win the war on drugs in a prison, where the hell you gonna win it?"