For more than a week, 50 to 75 Mississippi prison inmates have been out along a stretch of Interstate 10 connecting Hancock and Harrison counties, picking up debris left behind by Hurricane Katrina. Yet, not a single inmate has set foot inside Bay St. Louis despite a three-week old request by city officials asking the state if it could provide prison labor to help with the recovery process.
The inmates are out along the interstate because citizens of Bay St. Louis caught the ear of Christopher Epps, commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, when he was in town for a Thanksgiving week meeting with city representatives about the possibility of using prison labor to help rebuild the city.
Epps dispatched the work crews as soon as he could, but he says he hasn't sent them into Bay St. Louis yet because he doesn't know where to send them.
"We're still waiting to receive a list of projects from (Bay St. Louis) that they'd like us to work on," Epps says. "We have identified inmates with all the necessary skills: carpenters, electricians, masons, plumbers, you name it. We have the personnel ready to go. All I need is a list from them and they have not done that."
While the prisoners can work on any publicly owned building or property, Epps says he needs a list so he can appropriately assign inmates, arrange for security and housing in local jails while on the job and be sure that his crews aren't working on a project that hasn't already been contracted out.
Bay St. Louis city officials acknowledge they haven't come up with a list. "We think (prison labor) is a valuable resource," says Buzz Olson, economic and community development director for Bay St. Louis. "We just don't have our game plan together.
Olson says the list of projects has to be carefully thought through. "We want to make sure we give them some sure-fire projects," he says
Anytime you bring prisoners into the general population, there is the community to consider, safety and security issues to address and liability questions, Olson says.
"We don't know if we can let (the prisoners) operate heavy equipment, for example," he says. Such factors would play into determining what rebuilding projects ultimately end up on the list, he said.
"But we do not want to turn down any labor," Olson says "We're shorthanded as it is. We don't want to lose this opportunity."
The inmates aren't going anywhere for the time being. Unfortunately, neither are city officials from what Epps can tell. "And you can tell them I said that," he says.
Opportunism?...or Hope?
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i think other states should send inmates,and i think the Politichians should go work with them on the front lines..
Jim Ernst Ft lauderdale FL (Sent Dec 19, 2005 3:08:10 PM)
Ah, if it were only that simple. Imagine the story if the inmates were cleaning up the business of a big political contributer. Making a list of projects is not that easy. My company has been working with a group of work release prisoners and they are great workers, but come with a list of restrictions a mile long. As one (only one) earlier contributer pointed out in today's society everyone must look at the future litigation impact of every action. And as for the local officials, cut them some slack. They are doing a hell of a job with no resources, and I mean NO resources. I am a Katrina victom and can tell you that it is going to be years before life will even approach normal here. Try to do your Christmas shopping with the store hours 11 - 7. No staff. And that is the situation with the local governments. No staff.
Steve, New Orleans, LA (Sent Dec 19, 2005 3:11:27 PM)
Let them all work and then let them know anyone trying to escape will be shot on site. All it takes is one to set an example. They are of no use to society, so we might as well get something out of them. They have 3 squares a day and a roof over their heads. That's a lot more than some people.
Jon Lockley (Sent Dec 19, 2005 3:18:22 PM)
Just returned from a trip to Mississippi/Louisiana and was grateful to see inmates picking up the sides of I-10. Now, there's my tax dollars at work!!!
Cathi Schultz Crystal River, FL (Sent Dec 19, 2005 4:46:41 PM)
It's a shame that out of all of the gripe about taxes paid for correctional institutions and inmate rehabilation that we can't allow convicted citizens to work on the rebuilding process in this country. We need to learn that a change in habit is a chance worth taking.
SIMPLE THINKING (Sent Dec 19, 2005 7:41:21 PM)
Red tape is a mile long and it takes mighty big scissors to cut through it. I do believe that the inmates are an excellent idea for reconstruction, but don't forget these local politicians have their hands tied by state and federal laws. Many of the local politicians are living through the nightmare the same as their constituants. This is a natural disaster of unprecidented proportions. You will survive it one day at a time. May God bless you all and keep you safe. Merry Christmas.
Melissa, Pennsylvania (Sent Dec 19, 2005 9:21:07 PM)
It's nice to see the same slave labor at work, that origanally built the reigon in the old days...NOT!
terrance crabtree, indianapolis , IN (Sent Dec 19, 2005 10:37:11 PM)
where are your ideas for makeing us better i see a lot of griping and meaningless insults but no ideas for inprovement if you don't have any idea how to help, take two aspirin and get some rest. just an out siders opinion.
bob griffith, piggott, ar (Sent Dec 19, 2005 11:25:19 PM)
AS for myself, I think it's really a good idea to let the inmates help rebuild, and whoa, yeah, those politicians move slower than molasses on a winter day. Some body over there really needs to get their head out of their @&#%*@! and put together that list. It's terrible they can drag their feet on something like this.It's really a shame.How can they leave something so important on a backburner? The people who are sitting there waiting for all the buracratic bullcrap to finally run it's course so something can actually get done? Well they've been waiting long enough. Too long.
I hope somebody over there is listening to all of us and takes heed...or come reelection time, there won't be anybody left hanging around to put their ballot in!
Kreator, N. Las Vegas, NV (Sent Dec 19, 2005 11:42:44 PM)
Marques from DC, It's not "slave" labor to have inmates with skills help in the rebuilding of the gulf coast. A lot of people, myself included, don't know a lot about carpentry. I have been a mechanic for 27 years and don't see why people with some type of mechanical skills couldn't learn something from inmates. Remember, they did something wrong to become and inmate. The slaves never got a choice. Inmates need to repay society, not the other way around. My thought is the only thing that should stop other states from sending in inmates with skills is the guards to secure them.
Hugh W. Sterling VA (Sent Dec 20, 2005 2:28:57 PM)
My God. How can these city leaders sleep at night? An easy solution right down the road and NO ONE comes to help these poor people? We as Americans should be ashamed to let our politcs and postion affect whether or not to help someone!
Bill, Minneapolis, MN (Sent Dec 20, 2005 4:34:01 PM)
Melissa,Penn. - speaking of red tape, some bureaucrats, even in times of disaster and helping your fellow man out, were out in full force days after the hurricane. Less than ten days after Katrina hit, the military had their medical ship, USNS Comfort, in dock in Mississippi. Since all communications were out, they had to go out into the neiborhoods and collect people who needed medical aid and open a medical center in a abandoned mall. That awsome display of initiative and humanitarian thinking was immediatley rewarded by the local medical officials wanting to close it down because they said Navy doctors couldn't work on civilians. They are NAVY doctors. They work on your sons and daughters, husband and wives in the armed forces. I don't know who those official were, but I think they need to be publicly awarded the Darwin award for the year 2005. Talk about your red tape,huh? The great people of project Hope, who just got back from helping out in Indonesia, they stepped up to the plate and took over the medical clinics needs and helped keep the clinic open. I think it was the fact that they were giving away free medical aid.
To think that a regulation was about to be broken and having a bureaucrat tell a doctor when and who he/she can or cannot practice medicine on. I sleep well at night.
Hugh W. Sterling VA (Sent Dec 21, 2005 8:47:32 AM)
Jon Lockly....said a mouthfull...thank you Jon
andy,ms (Sent Dec 21, 2005 9:53:15 AM)
Was headed over to the Bay yesterday to take some pictures of the big mobile medic RV sent by the Rotory Club in Sacremento, CA and the inmates were cleaning up along I10. There is 100% difference where they have been working and what has not been touched. Until the Bay gets their act together then things are looking better along the roadside than even before the hurricane. If the Bay doesn't want to use these men then I am sure there must be other much needed work they can perform in another hard hit town (Pass Christian could certainly benefit). Sure hope someone out there in "political land" will get with the program and start thinking outside the same old way of doing things - get creative.
Marcella, Pass Christian, MS (Sent Dec 22, 2005 4:34:57 PM)
this is a very hard time for all ,in these devasted areas .
please only soulations not questions to help make everyone work together for this temperary / permant conditions they are sufering from .
GET IT DONE !! BY YOU FOR YOU !!
understanding yes we lost everything to a fire two years ago , GOOD WILL COME FROM THIS DESASTER
I KNOW THIS , PLEASE LOOK FOR IT !
STEWART WHITEHURST , CH,VILL VA (Sent Mar 19, 2006 10:22:20 AM)
Inmates are like us - they are human beings. They need to have the opportunity to contribute to the rebuilding if they want to do so and are not considered a risk. They got caught, but some people didn't. They are in prison, but some people are still walking the streets.
I agree that some people in prison probably will always be criminals, but some people there have learned their lessons. Isn't that what prisons are for?
Jane, Southern Mississippi (Sent May 28, 2006 10:56:08 PM)
Maybe the inmates should be used to coordinate a plan ........the elected officials can't !
rob dig (Sent May 31, 2006 12:53:48 PM)
You know, Rob, I am really frightened when I stop to actually think about everything going on in our government and our country now. I never thought I would see the changes we've experienced in the past several years. People being laid off right and left and their jobs sent overseas or given to illegal aliens, while the CEOs make a zillion dollars every year and "profits" go up and up. It used to be that corporations and big business thought about the workers that built the company. Now they only think about the workers who will work for next to nothing in another country or workers here illegally. And the lawmakers and the president keep giving in to this mindset. They used to think about us, too. Now to secure our borders and ports is secondary to "comprehensive immigration reform" and our government can't even build a wall to secure our border without permission from another country that sends their poorest here as part of their national policy. It does scare me and sadden me. It seems we are not very important anymore.
Jane, Southern Mississippi (Sent Jun 1, 2006 1:10:32 AM)
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