NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION James B. Hunt, Jr., Governor Joe Hamilton, Acting Secretary
Patty McQuillan, Director of Public Information (919) 733-4926

FEBRUARY 26, 1999

Prisoners worked more than 1.9 million hours in 1998 as part of the Governor’s Community Work Program that puts squads of minimum-security prisoners to work for North Carolina communities.

"Everyone wins with this program," said Acting Correction Secretary Joe Hamilton. "I’m proud of the hard work of our correction staff who have made this program a success and of the contributions of state prisoners who helped clean up after hurricanes, tornadoes and snowstorms last year. They worked hard helping communities where they were needed."

Prisoners from 44 state prisons worked a total of 1,925,520 hours during 1998. If the prisoners had been paid the current minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, their labor would have been valued at $9.9 million. The prisoner’s labor is free to public agencies that supply materials needed for the manual labor projects the prisoners tackle. The prisoners work in squads of up to ten under the supervision of a correctional officer.

During 1998, prisoners tackled a wide variety of jobs clearing brush, picking up litter, painting buildings and construction work. The squads were also put to work helping communities that suffered severe weather. They helped western North Carolina communities dig out of a snowstorm in January, cleaned up after tornadoes damaged communities in Rockingham and Forsyth counties in March and cleaned up after Hurricane Bonnie in August. They picked up tires the hurricane scattered along the beach, helped stand up tobacco plants knocked down by hurricane winds and cleared debris in coastal communities from Brunswick to Currituck counties.

The 148 crews worked 1,925,520 hours in 1998 compared with 124 crews that worked 1,698,705 hours in 1997.

The program was piloted in 1994 at Greene Correctional Center, expanded to 18 prisons in 1995, 35 in 1996, 43 prison in 1997 and 44 in 1998.

1,925,520 hours at minimum wage of $5.15 an hour totals $9,916,428

NC DOC Homepage
NC DOC News
NC DOC WEB Index
E-mail NC DOC