Salem County Sheriff Chuck Miller presented the idea to the board here recently saying the district could benefit by using the Sheriff’s Office’s Inmate Labor Detail. Report by NJ.com.

“Inmates can help with facility work. We have had a conversation two years ago, and we want to go ahead and revisit that possibility and what kinds of work they are doing to facilitate facility renovation,” Superintendent Dr. Mark Jones said.

The inmates would be from the Salem County Correctional Facility which Miller oversees.

According to Miller, the inmates would do free repair work such as painting during off-school hours.

“We’re here in a support role, to work along with any particular project. We take it anywhere from painting to carpentry skills. Any particular project you feel we can help with,” Miller said.

Miller said the crew could be between six and 10 inmates with an officer for supervision.

“We aren’t here to put you into any type of harm’s way or danger,” Miller said, adding the inmates are not hard criminals. “For the most part, the inmates are in jail for things like traffic fines to child support warrants.”

The inmate program has benefited other municipalities, including Elsinboro Township, Lower Alloways Creek Township, Mannington Township, and Alloway Township, the sheriff said.

Board member Lisa Ascali asked about the feedback from other school districts, and if they had expressed any concerns with the inmates working on facility work.

Miller responded that the overall response was positive and the other townships have asked when they can return to do more work.

“The board is receptive to the idea. There is a lot of painting to be done throughout the district. It’s an ongoing job itself,” Jones said.

According to Jones, the next step is to take a look at the types of jobs that can be done and put together a list of the possible work.

“Then we will reach out to the maintenance supervisor that works with Sheriff Miller to arrange jobs and invite the maintenance representative to come out and talk about those possible jobs,” Jones said.

According to Jones, once everything is clarified, the board will try to schedule something that fits the needs of what the inmates can do.

“The major question would be the supervisory,” Jones said. “The board is comfortable with any work they do that would be done when school isn’t in session.”

Miller said the inmates would have direct supervision and would only do facility work during off-school hours.

“We will look at the calendar, and whenever there are breaks in school, when students and staff aren’t there,” Jones said.

Miller said the service is free of charge and the only thing that needs to be supplied is the paint for the paint jobs or necessary costs associated materials for any repairs that are needed.

“This is a service that the county is providing and encouraging all municipalities to participate in. Any church or municipality that needs service, it’s free,” Miller said.

Department of Corrections Commissioner George Hayman told the committee: “We are living through an era when each expenditure must be scrutinized and every efficiency realized.”

New Jersey’s inmate population continues to drop — from 22,908 in 2007 to a projected 21,715 next year — but the annual cost of housing inmates continues to rise, to $38,500 per inmate. Prisons remain over capacity, with 5,563 more inmates than the facilities were designed for.

The department is doing everything from buying milk and cereal in bulk to closing a prison, Riverfront State Prison in Camden, this year to save money, Hayman said.

Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer County), asked about drug treatment and rehabilitation programs, which she said could help reduce the number of former convicts returning to prison.  Hayman said they were doing the best they could with limited resources.  “We treat as many as we can treat,” he said.

The Passaic County Sheriff’s Department, which oversees the jail, will not renew the deal when it expires May 31.   Sheriff’s department spokesman Bill Maer says the program raised about $3 million for Passaic County, with a per diem rate of $88 per prisoner. It was also meant to help alleviate overcrowding in Philly jails, which officials say has improved.  There were 200 Philadelphia inmates in Paterson at the height of the program. The last inmate was transferred out of New Jersey and back to a Philadelphia jail two weeks ago.

Maer says the agreement “has outlived its usefulness.”

“It will help these women become vital, positive resources within their communities,” said State Parole Board Chairman Yolette C. Ross. Officials said women have unique needs, such as responsibilities for child care and histories of abuse, that require gender-specific programs …  Called the Women’s Reentry & Employment Partnership, the initiative is an extension of the Female Offender Reentry Group Effort, or FORGE, in Essex County. The partnership will work with currently existing training centers geared toward urban women in Trenton and Camden.

Many of the programs help prisoners cope with different aspects of their lives that may have led them to the mistakes they made, Rutgers Center Director Dr. Nancy Wolff said. Focused skill-sets include better ways to deal with stress, balancing a budget and even how to be healthier …

The program’s initial success can be seen in one of Wolff’s star pupils, Cathy Xerri, who graduated from the first class and has remained active in working with Wolff for the next classes … Xerri now manages the community center in the correctional facility and meets with her peers to help them get readjusted to life outside the fences … “People need to understand that most prisoners are going to return to the community and we need to be productive members of that community,” Xerri said. “We need to bridge the gap to the people on the outside of the perception to the people on the inside … “I would have never foreseen myself coming to prison; it was a mistake, not my lifestyle,” Xerri said. “This program has been an eye-opener, and it’s something that I’d like to pass along.”

More than 10,000 people arrested for minor crimes have been strip-searched at the facilities since 2003, a practice that could end up costing the counties millions of dollars, said Susan Chana Lask, a New York lawyer suing the jails.   “They just think the law stops at their doors, and they can do whatever they want,” Lask said. “I’m fighting it and winning it to make sure constitutional rights are not stripped away in prison.”

Similar lawsuits are pending against other county jails in New Jersey. The Camden County jail agreed in 2007 to pay $7.5 million to as many as 20,000 people strip-searched while held on minor charges …

Burlington County jail officials argued that their procedures for inmates held on such offenses amounted to a “visual observation” of their bodies, not the more intrusive strip-search required for serious offenders.  They said the inspection of the nude inmates was necessary to ensure they were not smuggling contraband, to identify gang members through tattoos, and to detect health issues, such as evidence of the MRSA virus. But District Judge Joseph Rodriguez said subjecting those arrested for minor violations to a strip search was unconstitutional unless there was “reasonable suspicion” they were carrying contraband …

J. Brooks DiDonato, an attorney for Burlington County, said he could not comment at length on the case.  “The county fully intends on appealing and defending the case vigorously,” he said.

The five minute audio (which I cannot embed here unfortunately) can be found at Lehigh Valley Live.

Two Republican state representatives from Burlington County have urged Gov. Jon S. Corzine to halt the plan to close Riverfront State Prison in Camden [see earlier coverage].

Assemblywoman Dawn Marie Addiego and Assemblyman Scott Rudder said it was “foolhardy” and “unconscionable” for the state to “abandon one of its newest prison facilities.”   They argued that even though the state prison population has declined, statistics from the Office of Legislative Services show that the system is operating at 136 percent of capacity. That data also showed that 1,122 state inmates were being held in county jails at the end of 2008. The state should anticipate an increase in prisoners because the attorney general’s office reported filing almost 50 percent more criminal charges in 2008 than the previous year, they wrote in a letter Wednesday …

Corzine does not intend to change his plan, said spokesman Sean Darcy.  “Closing the prison makes government more efficient and paves the way for central redevelopment in Camden on the prime waterfront,” he said.

For more, see the Courier Post Online.

Skillman Farm, a 500-acre breeding farm on a rural stretch of Burnt Hill Road in Montgomery Township, is one of six dairy and crop farms run by AgriIndustries, a self-sustaining branch of the Department of Corrections that sells dairy and processed food products back to the department and other state agencies at cost-saving prices. Historically, the farm has been staffed by prisoners from the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Burlington County, who are bused in daily. The work is considered a perk for minimum-security prisoners who are nearing the end of their sentences … The farm work program has been a lucrative enterprise, saving the state about $1 million a year in food costs and offering a chance for prisoners to develop a work ethic before their release, AgriIndustries administrator Frank Papa said. Since the escape, however, Skillman Farm has been run by its civilian staff and the prisoners are not expected to return …

Montgomery Mayor Louise Wilson said the township has been urging the corrections department to end the prisoner work program at Skillman Farm. Though she conceded the farm has been a quiet neighbor for years, Wilson said the high-profile escape changed everything …

Papa said the breeding operation at the farm will likely be scaled back and the animals moved to other farms. The farm will continue to grow corn, alfalfa, wheat and rye used for feed and bedding for animals at other AgriIndustries farms that don’t have enough land. “We need the property,” Papa said.

Yolette C. Ross will chair the [New Jersey Parole] Board, and will become New Jersey’s first black woman in that role and one of just four across the country.   She succeeds Peter Barrens Jr., who retired.

Ross became vice chair of the board in May 2007 and has been a board member since 2005.  She began her career as a probation officer and later worked as deputy chief of staff to Gov. Richard Codey.   Ross has played a key role in the Female Offender Re-Entry Group Effort, based in Essex and Camden counties.