THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, February 22, 1995           TAG: 9502220435
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                            LENGTH: Short :   40 lines

PRISONERS CUT LITTER ON HIGHWAYS BY 19 TONS

Supervised inmates, combing the shoulders and medians of Interstate 264 in January, removed more than 38,000 pounds of trash - including a toilet, a water heater and a refrigerator.

In a Tuesday memo to Sheriff Bob McCabe, Maj. Michael O'Toole detailed the cache of trash stuffed into more than 1,200 bags. Among the refuse:

150 hubcaps

8 car tires

8 traffic signs

5 car jacks

4 barrels

4 house fans

4 truck tires

2 mattresses

2 bumpers

1 wooden bench

The same stretch of highway was cleaned by a private contractor last year. The contractor was paid about twice the $55,887 total that sheriff's departments in Norfolk and Virginia Beach now collect from the state.

Some City Jail inmates began picking up along the Norfolk section of I-264 in January after McCabe agreed to split roadside cleaning duties with Virginia Beach Sheriff Frank Drew. Drew won the state contract last year. Drew's crews clean the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway.

The Norfolk inmates, nonviolent offenders who volunteer for the detail, earn minimum-wage credits they use to settle fines and court costs keeping them in jail.

In Virginia Beach, inmates work for good-time credits that shorten sentences. by CNB