Lawbreakers unable to pay their fines may find themselves doing more than picking up trash in the future.
Columbus Mayor Robert Smith intends to meet with newly installed city judges Marc Amos and Nicole Clinkscales at some point in the near future to talk about the direction of the city”s offender work program.
“We”re supposed to sit down along with some members of the council and get some input from them on the long-range things we would like to get (the work program) involved in,” said Smith. “For example: Cleaning out ditches. We just want to see them do something more constructive.”
Participants in Columbus” work program currently pick up litter, wash police cars and maintain the CPD firing range. Starkville”s work program does the same.
The program is intended to keep nonviolent, misdemeanor offenders who can”t pay their fines out of jail, where it costs Columbus $25 per inmate per day to keep them locked up. The cost in Starkville is $35 per inmate per day.
“The program is set up to allow people who don”t make a lot of money to work off their fines,” said Officer Bobby Webber, who supervises the work program in Columbus. “If you make $200 a week and your fine is $300, that”s going to cut into your rent. So this helps them serve their community and help them out at the same time.”
Webber, who is also the CPD”s range instructor, said the city court keeps his work crew manned with 15-20 workers on an average day. Offenders without jobs work during weekdays while those with jobs work on their days off. Webber spends Wednesdays at the Municipal Complex where offenders come to sign up for the work program.
“You paid $100? You owe $426 now? I”ll see you next Tuesday. Do you know where to meet at?” he asks a middle-aged woman before giving her directions to the meeting spot where he”ll drive offenders to the work area in a city van.
“You go to college? Full time student? Show up Saturday,” he tells a young man.
“How old are you? Fifteen? Is the phone number on this paper good? If I don”t call you before, you show up for work this Saturday,” he tells a younger man.
Webber is the guy in the van when work program offenders are picking up litter on the highway.
“I don”t know what it is about trash, but it just gets thrown out,” he said.
He keeps them in a tight group. If someone leaves the group or doesn”t show up for work they”ll simply be forced to pay their fine or serve a jail sentence.
Work starts at 8 a.m. Offenders are paid $51.50 per day for an eight-hour shift — roughly minimum wage — to do whatever the city needs.
“If the mayor and chief call me and say, ”I need the work program to paint City Hall,” that”s part of the city and they (the work program) are part of the city,” explains Webber. “I ask the city councilmen if they have a bad neighborhood (to be cleaned). Officers look also and notify me and we go out and take care of it.
“The city needs this because there”s some dilapidated places that need to be cleaned up. And also to keep us from picking up the same person over and over because they can”t pay their fines.”
Some offenders have special training, but Webber says they keep it to themselves to avoid doing skilled work for minimum wage. Mayor Smith says he”ll consult legal counsel as to what the offenders are and are not allowed by law to do.
Columbus Police Chief Joseph St. John is open to expanding the program.
“I think we need more ways to get people involved. Maybe redefining the people who can participate. We won”t take any violent criminals or people detrimental to society,” St. John said.
Webber says he gets a lot of people on his work crew thanks to shoplifting, DUI and driving with a suspended drivers license or no insurance.
In Starkville, work program offenders participate in Operation Blue Bag, signified by the royal blue trash bags used to gather litter.
But Starkville courts also have another option available to them, according to Chief David Lindley. A house arrest program exists for low-level offenders who pay $10 each day to participate in the program. Bail bondsmen keep track of the electronic monitoring devices used in the house arrest program.
“That”s letting them serve their time in a friendly environment,” said Lindley. “If a person is indigent and can”t pay the $10, then the city pays the fee.
“The only weak side to the work program is you never know how many workers you”re going to have because people are constantly working fines off. You can have none to 10, so it”s hard to schedule something on a continual basis.”
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.