Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 7, 1990                   TAG: 9006070015
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI                                 LENGTH: Medium

INMATES PAINTING PULASKI JAIL GET DAYS STRIPPED FROM SENTENCES

For the first time in five years, the outside of the 40-year-old jail was repainted.

Not only was most of it repainted the same brown and tan colors as the Sheriff's Department uniforms, but a new five-point star - in the shape of a deputy's badge - was painted above the jail entrance.

OK, so a new paint job isn't big news.

But consider this: The job was done by short-time jail inmates who got a day chopped off their sentence for each day they painted. And since the inmates weren't paid, the county saved hundreds of dollars.

"We saved the county all the labor. The only thing we bought was the paint," Sheriff Frank Conner said. "It's a good deal."

Conner said the inmates also painted the inside of the jail, which usually is done every year.

"With 60 to 70 prisoners a day [living in the jail], that's a lot of wear and tear," he said.

And it was an inmate who designed, outlined and then painted the star on the wall above the entrance to the jail and magistrate's office.

Conner said it was the first time an emblem had been painted on the jail. He said it spruced the place up a bit.

It took a few weeks for inmates to complete the job. Those lucky enough to be chosen to leave their cells each day were those who had been convicted of non-violent crimes and were serving short sentences.

Those same inmates will now go to work on the jail's five-acre farm, where they grow the fruit and vegetables cooked in their kitchen and donated to local charities.

Again, each day they work on the farm is a day knocked off their sentence. And again, it saves money for the county.

In times of local budget crunches and cutbacks in state spending, Conner said he has to cut corners where he can.

And while the few hundred dollars saved on the paint job isn't that much, Conner said it also gets the inmates out of the jail a little sooner. And that too saves the county money because it costs money to hold inmates in the jail.