NORWICH – Inmates at the Chenango County Correctional Facility have saved the county approximately $20,000 so far this year alone. How? The inmates have work over 2,400 hours so far in community service projects.
“I strongly support inmate details,” said County Sheriff Thomas Loughren of the work crews that lend manpower to various cleanup projects throughout the county.
Every day, between two and six, and sometimes more, inmates voluntarily work an 8-hour shift outside the jail. Their jobs have included efforts with flood clean up, cemetery restorations, landfill duties and all kinds of clean up and maintenance of any demand. On days when the weather doesn’t cooperate, the inmates stay inside doing maintenance and help tend the jail’s garden, which is still in its infancy.
“We’re just getting started,” said Sgt. Michael Friot, who coordinates the work details for the sheriff.
“Hopefully one day the garden will yield significant produce and save the county from having to purchase vegetables,” said Loughren. The sheriff said the department had run a garden before and it eventually yielded hundreds of pounds of produce a year. His goal is to accomplish that at the new county jail as well.
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