THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 12, 1996 TAG: 9608120029
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 91 lines
Ocealia Donaldson and Joyce Deavereaux stood back and surveyed the headstones of three people who lived 200 years ago in Portsmouth.
``Now they look good, don't they?'' Donaldson asked, talking to nobody in particular.
Just to prove to herself how good the grave markers did look, she took a level and checked them out. Sure enough, the leveling bubble was right in the middle, she said.
Donaldson, 43, and Deavereaux, 27, are two members of a women's work crew from the City Jail. They have been working at Cedar Grove, an old downtown cemetery that is a National Historic Landmark.
The stones, first put in the cemetery in the early 1800s, were leaning and ready to fall when the women started their work.
``We took them up and replanted them in the same place,'' Deavereaux said.
``Yeah, I thought you just had to dig a hole and stick them in it, but there's more to it,'' Donaldson said. ``When you tap it and level it, it makes you real proud of your work.''
The all-female work crew is one of a kind in Virginia, Sheriff Gary Waters said Thursday. He said he knew of no other jail that had formed a crew of female inmates to work outside.
``The women asked to go out and work like the men, so we started the first one on a trial basis,'' Waters said. ``And then everybody asked for the women. It's worked so well that we're starting a second women's group this week.''
M.H. ``Hank'' Morris, a citizen who has led volunteer efforts to spruce up Cedar Grove, said the women work better and harder than the men.
``I asked the sheriff to send them back,'' Morris said.
This week, the female inmates started two special projects at the cemetery. One group dug a 3-foot-square hole for the base of a new flag pole, and another group painted iron fences black.
The graveyard shift is all right ``as long as it's daytime,'' said 28-year-old Stephanie Wallace, sitting on the end of a stone marker painting a wrought-iron fence.
``I like being out here,'' she said. ``You can just paint your anger out. Or you can pull up a plant or shovel some dirt to get rid of the feelings.''
The women must qualify for the work crews, Sheriff's Department Sgt. Martha J. Bierbaum said. They must be incarcerated for non-violent offenses, and they must be short-timers.
In fact, the women earn time for their work. Deavereaux, for instance, has cut her 92 days to 62.
``By getting outside, I've stayed out of trouble in jail, too,'' she said. ``Even though I hate graveyards, I like being here.''
Bierbaum said there have been no problems with the women's crew, which has been working outside the jail daily for several months. Most of the original members have been released.
``They're really in demand and they like that,'' she said. ``Some of them get a different look on life when they go out and work every day, and some of them are learning new skills.''
Linda Skeeter, 32, said that although her father was a painter, ``painting today is a first experience for me.''
``I might try to get a job painting when I get out,'' she added.
Most of the women on the crew are in jail for parole violations, and most were sentenced in the first place on drug charges. One or two are serving time for shoplifting or writing bad checks.
Diane Lee, 30, who was put in jail for not paying $15 a month child support to her sister, said she ``wants to work'' when she gets out this month.
``I'm willing and ready, but I don't know if I'll find a job,'' she said.
Natalie Armel, a 23-year-old who has some college credits, is in jail for violating probation on drug charges.
``You know, 90 percent or more of the problems in this group are drug-related,'' Armel said. ``We're not bad people. We're people doing bad things for drugs.''
Armel said she would like to see the jail do more to help people deal with the problem, to understand their addictions.
Stephanie Wallace agreed.
``I'm going to a rehab center when I get out,'' she said. ``If I had gone before, I might not be here now.''
Working with citizen volunteers has been a good experience, Sherri Bishop, 30, said.
``They show us some appreciation for our work,'' Bishop said.
Don Williamson, one of the volunteers working on the cemetery project, gave credence to his words of thanks when he showed up with a cooler full of soft drinks.
``This is the only place they give us a cold soda,'' Phyllis Wallace said.
The women work at different places on different days. But they go somewhere to work five days a week.
``We're learning how to get up and go out to work,'' Donaldson said. ``We're showing we can be trusted.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by MARK MITCHELL/The Virginian-Pilot
The women's work crew from the Portsmouth City Jail tackles the
foundation for a flag pole at the Cedar Grove Cemetery.
KEYWORDS: WORK CREW PORTSMOUTH JAIL WOMEN by CNB