AL Prisoners Hired to Help With Oil Relief Efforts
More than 200 prisoners are among the people hired for work related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections. All are working for SG & S Oil Recovery Product LLC, which is based in Baldwin County, according to Brian Corbett, a spokesman with the corrections department. Reported by Alabama Live.
At least 75 of the inmates were trained in Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response, also known as HAZWOPER, on Dauphin Island between May 13 and 16, while another 73 are being trained this week, Corbett said. Another 59 inmates in Loxley are making boom, he said.
The facility in Loxley is a Department of Corrections work-release center. SG & S owner Jay Graddick, who launched his new business after the leak, said he has been using work-release inmates for two years on construction sites.
He said he placed an ad in the Press-Register several weeks ago, looking for oil relief help, and offered $8 to $10 per hour, but “didn’t get a single phone call for somebody looking for a job.”
He said the work-release inmates are reliable. “It’s almost impossible for them to steal anything,” Graddick said. “They’re not walking around talking on cell phones. They’re orderly, because repercussions are harsh. I’ve had less problems with these guys than when I’ve hired just normal people.”
Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier and the town’s police chief, George Goodwin, said they were not notified when the inmates were sent to training classes at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Collier said a call to the chief would have been “appropriate.”
Corbett said the inmates are low-risk, nonviolent offenders nearing the end of their prison terms.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has left many in the seafood industry out of regular work.
Bayou La Batre Mayor Stan Wright was critical of a contractor that would hire inmates “when you have people who don’t even have a traffic ticket on their record” looking for work.
“I’m all for rehabilitating criminals, but we need to put these daddies and mamas that have small children at home that have responsibilities and put them to work.”
Collier said he did not believe that working inmates would affect tourism on Dauphin Island, but he agreed that those most directly affected by the spill should be a priority for jobs.
“If we’ve got local people who have been hit by this and need work, we need to start closer to home,” Collier said.
Graddick wants local workers, too, saying, “if a guy walks up, and he’s willing to do the work, I’ll hire him.”
Inmates are not the only ones being trained on Dauphin Island. Collier said as many as 1,500 people are doing oil relief work there on any given day.
The state’s work release program is designed to “reintegrate” prisoners into society, Corbett said. Inmates can be hired upwards of a year before their release date. Corbett said inmates must be offered “prevailing wages,” and the Department of Corrections retains 40 percent of that money. Prisoners can use the rest to pay fines, restitution, child support or even save it for spending when they are released.
“We have an obligation to return them to the community as best we can,” Corbett said. “If an employer chooses to utilize work-release labor, that choice is up to the employer.”
Corbett said it was unclear whether the inmates would be put to work on the island after their training is finished.
At least 75 of the inmates were trained in Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response, also known as HAZWOPER, on Dauphin Island between May 13 and 16, while another 73 are being trained this week, Corbett said. Another 59 inmates in Loxley are making boom, he said.
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