SEPTEMBER 9, 1996

RALEIGH -- State Correction Secretary Franklin Freeman called today and offered the Wake County Schools the use of inmate labor to clean up school grounds. Ten inmate work crews will leave the Division of Prisons Central Area office at 2431 Crabtree Boulevard tomorrow morning at 8 to begin work.

Wake County School officials will meet with prison managers and brief them on the project to clean up school grounds in the Raleigh area.

"We want to put inmates to work and help the community," said Secretary Freeman. "These inmates will help clean public school grounds for the next two days or until schools reopen."

The inmates will remove tree limbs, clear debris and rake the grounds. Each crew of 7-10 minimum custody inmates will be supervised by a correctional officer.

Sanford Correctional Center will provide three crews. There will be two from Wake Correctional Center and one each from Granville Correctional Center, Orange Correctional Center, Umstead Correctional Center, Raleigh Correctional Center for Women and N.C. Correctional Institution for Women.

The 70-100 inmates clearing Raleigh area school grounds tomorrow are in addition to more than 2,000 inmates that worked in community work squads and Transportation road squads today clearing debris left by Hurricane Fran in eastern North Carolina.

-bp-