Don, I've never seen federal inmates in Terre Haute on work crews but I believe that they are hard timers and, of course, death row inmates. Also, as federal inmates, they wouldn't fall into the realm on the local authorities. I believe that the federal prison system is going to build a minimum security prison here in Terre Haute also but I doubt that they would be involved in local work crews either. I have seen, many time, prisoners from the local jail on work crews in the Summers but only with city and county departments, street and highway departments, for example. Brian E. Smead Terre Haute, Indiana ----- Original Message ----- From: "CRFORDY" <crfordy@citlink.net> To: <INPCRP-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2002 7:37 PM Subject: [INPCRP] Inmate work Crews > It is sad that these sheriff's that you mention are not interested in > working these men and women that are confined. They can get a lot of > political mileage out of these types of special projects. Someone should try > to convince these elected officials how good these types of projects are for > their election and re-elections. I work for the California Department of > Corrections. Even though these Wardens are not elected they willingly > provide work crews and each year they adopt a Cemetery, School, Park etc and > compete with other work crews for the best looking work produced. The > inmates take a lot of pride in their work. Most of them have not worked to > any degree in their lives and they are really impressed with themselves and > what they can produce. They even cut fire wood for indigent seniors and > shovel snow from overloaded public and private buildings. These men and > women are first classified by their type of crime. No sex offenders, No > Arsonists, No lifers, and No violent offenders. So what you end up with are > mostly minor drug offenders and property crime offenders. They also take > people with smaller sentences left to serve so they are less likely to want > to run off while out on public service crews. Most of these crews are about > 8-10 in size they bring their own tools so there are no exchanges with the > public except for maybe words or looks. Usually they have secured an older > surplus military or school bus. They pull a trailer with a chemical toilet > mounted on it. These items are usually surplus so the cost is lower. All > the Sheriff needs do is supply the security and the inmates to the above and > he looks as good to the public as his crews do in their work. I know that > this is over simplified in word but believe me these Elected and appointed > officials are well thought of. The better they are thought of the more and > better the work becomes and re elections and appointments are almost > assured. The big winner in this is scenario is the public. They actually get > something out of the moneys they pay in taxes. Every year the waiting list > grows with requests for public services. The hard part-getting to convince > the officials in your area that this is something they will also benefit > from. > Just for information we are to be recieving a couple of new crews in a > couple of years. A new federal prison is locating here and they have a > procedure to supply work crews for public projects too. I Know there is a > Federal Prison in Terre Haute maybe they have a program in place for > community work crews. > Don Huffman > crfordy@citlink.net > > > > ==== INPCRP Mailing List ==== > Please do not send queries through this list. > >

On Sat, 12 Jan 2002, Brian Smead wrote: > Don, > I've never seen federal inmates in Terre Haute on work crews but I believe > that they are hard timers and, of course, death row inmates. Also, as > federal inmates, they wouldn't fall into the realm on the local authorities. > I believe that the federal prison system is going to build a minimum > security prison here in Terre Haute also but I doubt that they would be > involved in local work crews either. I have seen, many time, prisoners from > the local jail on work crews in the Summers but only with city and county > departments, street and highway departments, for example. > Brian E. Smead > Terre Haute, Indiana Actually, the federal prison in Terre Haute does contain people who have stolen or were caught with drugs in DC. Any crime in DC is a federal felony, and many go to Terre Haute. I also heard they have a work farm or work release farm. A boss of mine used to be a cop out there and said once that he had to go find a guy who didn't check in. This may have changed over the last few years, I am not sure.