Sheriff Brings Road Cleaning Program Back
One program that is part of Frederick County Sheriff’s Office Corrections Bureau Community Labor Unit is the Road Cleaning Program and for the first time in five years this program is back up and running.
“In less than a month we have cleaned approximately 12 county roads and collected more than 60 large bags of trash and large items such as tires, dressers, mattresses, vacuum cleaners, etc.,” said Lt. Charles Clarke, Work Release commander. “As long as we have the eligible defendants and inmates on the program we are going to keep Frederick County clean. I challenge everyone to put this road cleaning crew out of business, by properly throwing away their garbage, but until then we are going to keep on going.”
The Community Labor Unit is comprised of inmates from the Frederick County Adult Detention Center (Labor Program) and defendants assigned community service hours by a sitting Frederick County judge (Alternative Sentencing Program).
Inmates need authorization through a court order to be on the Work Release Program for consideration to the Labor Program. The Labor Program is a “Warden’s Program” and therefore, inmates must meet pre-established qualifications in order to be placed on the program. Their participation is strictly volunteer although they do receive additional days off their sentence for work performed. Inmates on the labor program reside in the Work Release building where they have one-on-one access to a classification specialist who helps them apply for and possibly obtain employment.
Alternative Sentencing Program defendants report to the Frederick County Work Release building at 7:50 a.m., Monday through Friday. There, they connect with the correctional officer in charge of the Community Labor Unit and are briefed as to what work they will be performing for the day. This office documents all community service hours completed by the defendants and reports it to their assigned classification specialist on a daily basis. If a defendant fails to complete their court ordered community service hours, the assigned classification specialist will issue them a violation. The sentencing judge receives that violation for their review and the defendant could possibly receive jail time for their noncompliance. All inmates and defendants are provided with the necessary safety equipment (i.e., gloves, safety eyewear, ear protection, etc.) prior to the crew starting their assigned duties for the day. According to Clarke, this program will continue through 2020 and in to 2021 with defendants and inmates working to help keep Frederick County clean and safe.
