MANSFIELD – Drivers along Illinois Avenue may have noticed a small group of men in stripes collecting trash along the roadway on Wednesday.
A simple act of cleaning up actually represents a symbiotic relationship between the Richland County Sheriff’s Office, the Richland County Jail, and the community.
The inmates were part of the Community Control Work Program, designed to help the community as well as those who are incarcerated. The program is overseen by Sheriff Steve Sheldon, and targets inmates who have committed non-violent misdemeanors.
Deputy Keith Whitzky, Community Control Work Program Coordinator, has expanded the reach of the program throughout his 16 years of coordination. Some of the responsibilities include cleaning county roads, working with all county agencies and the maintenance department, painting, building and any other task the Sheriff deems necessary.
“I’ve expanded it to working more in the community with the townships,” Whitzky said. “They do things like weed whacking, grass mowing, cemetery work, and a lot of work at the fairgrounds during the Richland County Fair.”
On average, Whitzky brings four inmates from the Richland County Jail with him for a Community Work day. He explained the inmates have to meet special criteria to be part of the program, including no violence in their backgrounds and no warrants elsewhere.
“They’re low-scale, minimum-security inmates,” Whitzky said. “They made a mistake and got 30 days. Generally, I don’t take anybody out here who’s got more than six months. We rotate them as far as who’s eligible.”
Wednesday’s work on Illinois Avenue came as a special request from Sheldon, after receiving many calls of complaints from the community about the trash along the road. According to Maj. Joe Masi with the Sheriff’s Department, the four inmates filled 33, 45-gallon bags with trash and litter along Illinois Avenue, and disposed of it in county dumpsters.
A sign is always displayed along the road to protect the inmates from any injury due to traffic. However, over the years Whitzky deemed it necessary to also have an extra deputy on scene.
“To do this you need a chase car, because what has happened over the years is people are not aware when we’re out and they’re kind of negligent,” Whitzky said. “They’re out walking county roads and people don’t want to slow down.”
Whitzky said trash pickup with the Community Work program has been difficult to maintain, as the need for deputies on the road outweighed the work program. However, the benefit of the program is not to be understated – it saves the county time and money by using inmates and paid county workers strategically.
In addition, the Community Work program is a positive experience for the inmates as a chance to leave their jail cells and learn skillful job training.
“I can’t recall anybody saying anything negative,” Whitzky said. “One thing they do say is they’re going to think twice before throwing trash out their window. I think it gives them a feeling of self-worth and helping out, and a lot of them don’t get that in their day-to-day world.”
