ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 10, 1997 TAG: 9704100024
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-14 EDITION: METRO
Roanoke's parks have problems. The city's jailkeeper has a solution - inmate labor.
THE IDEA isn't new - using prisoners to clean up parks. Gov. George Allen, for one, put state inmates to work spiffing up Virginia's parklands and historic sites. But credit Roanoke city's Sheriff Alvin Hudson for running with the idea, once recent news stories brought to his attention the city parks' fall into deterioration.
He didn't say, ``Not my department, not my turf,'' as some bureaucrats might have. He didn't wait for City Hall. Hudson asked three able-bodied ``guests'' in his jail to volunteer, and dispatched them to the parks to make major repairs and amends.
So they went with armed guards. The inmates, carefully selected from the jail's minimum-security clientele with nonviolent records, seemed happy to get out of their cells and into the fresh air. And apparently they tackled the tasks with an enthusiasm not always shown by city-paid cleanup crews.
The five neighborhood parks thus far visited by the inmates have benefited; park visitors have benefited; taxpayers have benefited. Doubtless, the inmates also have - since physical work can be redemptive and good for a body.
Hudson hopes his inmates can spruce up all the city's 67 parks by Memorial Day. The sheriff is aiming to complete the work before schools let out for the summer and the parks become more crowded. Meanwhile, signs are posted to advise residents when inmates are on park premises.
Most Roanokers, tree-huggers and tough-on-crime folks alike, should applaud Hudson's initiative. Any who might object to giving prisoners the ``luxury'' of time outdoors should visit the parks' toilet facilities. Cleaning them is definitely no picnic.
LENGTH: Short : 38 linesby CNB