ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – The Roanoke County Sheriff's office is hoping to save local tax dollars while improving the community by putting local inmates to work. A new pilot program which starts next week uses non-violent offenders serving time in Roanoke County jail to help fill the need of volunteers at the Regional Center for Animal Control and Protection.
Spring and summer months are the busiest time of year at the Regional Center for Animal Control and Protection. Every day there are more and more new faces looking for temporary shelter until they can find a new home.
But as more animals come in, new resources to take care them are not so frequent.
"We started to realize that we are overcrowded and it's a lot of stress on the workers to take care of all of the animals,” said Mike Warner, executive director of RCACP.
A former member of the Roanoke County Sheriff’s Department, Warner comes from a corrections background. When he noticed the need for help, he knew exactly where to look: The local county jail.
"It's just a free resource that I felt like we needed to tap into. With the volume of the animals that we are keeping up and the state standards that we have to keep, keeping cages clean and also giving the times for the workers to come out and walk the dogs,” Warner said.
The pilot program. approved by the sheriff, will send a group of non-violent low security trustees from the county jail under the watch of a deputy to to help keep the animal pens and other areas clean.
Trustees selected for this project will be of minimum security risk with no convictions of abuse towards animals or crimes against persons. LT. Col Steve Turner, with Roanoke County Sheriff’s Department said trustees will provide assistance several days a week. After a test period of several months, the program will be evaluated and a determination made of the feasibility of continuing it as is or making other changes such as increasing the number of days of assistance per week.
"We feel like if we keep the trustees working, the misdemeanor offenders get an extra day off for each day they work. It's a win-win for them. It gets the job done, and it's very cost effective,” Turner said.
He says not only does it help the RCACP, but could also provide future job opportunities to rehabilitate inmates.
"It provides somebody some skills to maybe get a job later one,” Turner said. "That's what we are working on, getting these people to learn what a good work ethic is, making them dependable and getting a skill set that they can use outside."
It could be a better start at a new future for man and man's best friend.
After a test period of several months, the program will be evaluated and a determination made of the feasibility of continuing it as is or making other changes such as increasing the number of days of assistance per week.
The Roanoke County Sheriff’s Department explained this program is in addition to the three other inmate programs already in place. In agreement with the Roanoke County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism the Sheriff’s Office provides a 4-5 inmate work crew that will provide mowing and general maintenance work at many of the county park’s and athletic facilities. There is a second work crew of 3-4 inmates that also provides the same work in the parks in addition to mowing the medians of many of the roads throughout the county. The charge to the county is limited to the cost of the two deputies providing security of the inmate work crews. The inmates provide free labor so there is a significant savings to the county.
“These programs provide inmates a chance to learn landscaping related skills while providing general labor for projects. We hope that inmates develop work ethics and skills that may assist them in finding employment once they are released from confinement,” said the Sheriff’s Department in a release.