Inmate Work Program Betters Inmates and Community
It’s a bright sunny day as Sgt. Robert Symsek informally jokes and talks with a group of men in bright yellow t-shirts working on sanding down a car. This is a regular routine for Symsek who knows these men well and sees them everyday at work. The only difference is that the men in yellow shirts are inmates and Symsek is a corrections officer. While this might not seem like a normal interaction at a corrections facility but it has become so at the Portage County Jail thanks to one program.
“We’re looking to make people better when they come out than when they went in,” Symsek said about the inmate work program.
Through this program at the jail inmates learn life skills such as sewing, cooking, carpentry, and car detailing which they can take with them when they leave the jail.
The inmate work program at the Portage County jail began shortly after Sheriff David Doak took office in 2009. Doak said the inspiration to start the program came from walking through the jail and seeing inmates bored from sitting around playing board games and cards.
“I said you know we could put those guys to work and accomplish a lot at no cost
and they could learn something of it, so its a win-win.”
Doak says the program started out small but has grown to include a wide range of product and services including fixing patrol cars, painting, growing produce in the jail’s garden, sewing, doing laundry, etc. There really isn’t a lot that the program doesn’t do and if the inmates don’t know how to do something then Doak says they bring someone in to teach them.
Symsek said that one of the main benefits of these programs is the calm atmosphere in the jail.
“The program has created a lot of time where the inmates are actually busy, they don’t have time to think about why they’re here or about getting in fights,” Symsek said.
Dennis Inman, a participant in the program, agrees with Symsek.
“It’s an excellent program. It’s nice to be treated as a normal human being, they treat us very well.”
How it Works
Inmates pay for all of the supplies they need at the jail (including material for their uniforms, paint, etc.) through their commissary fund. The commissary fund is an account that inmates put money into and then use to buy things they need or want such as toothpaste, clothes, and chips.
Before this program the jail’s main source of funding was Airmark who was responsible for handling the commissary fund. When inmates purchase items from commissary that money goes toward purchasing materials needed to fund the program.
“We start small until we got some money built up and then they’re buying lawn mowers and sewing machines and now we have a patrol car,” Symsek said about funding the program.
Inmates are supervised and both men and women are allowed to participate. Not all inmates are allowed into the program though. Inmates first must go through a screening process and only inmates being held on non-violent charges are allowed to participate. Symsek said out of 248 inmates to choose from about 30 participate.
The program delivers about 21000-23000 hours of free labor to the jail and to the community. The program is divided into two 10-12 hour shifts; day and night. People who work the night shift take care of work such as cleaning and buffing the floors while inmates who work during the day do other things like sew uniforms, do laundry, or pick up trash alongside the highway.
Programs similar to the one at Portage County also exist in other jails throughout the state of Ohio including Montgomery, Lake and Geagua counties. The prison system in Ohio has also turned to work related integration programs to ease crowding.
