The city of Pine Bluff, Ark., has about 600 houses that need to be torn down. Dee-molished. Replaced with something else--even if that something is a nice green lot with grass and a couple of trees. Age is one thing. But a house falling in on itself, or maybe falling in on somebody who shouldn't be in there, is something else.
That's why cities have laws on the books that allow them to tear down abandoned houses. Pine Bluff, it seems, has years' worth of work to do in this department. Which is why it's curious that the city fathers--and mothers--haven't jumped at the chance to use prison labor for the job.
The state proposes to have the city participate in a pilot program that would use prisoners to help tear down dilapidated old houses--and the state would pay for it with an $830,000 grant. Still, the city balks.
You have to wonder why. The whole idea seems simple enough:
Over the next three years, the state would let small groups of inmates live in duplexes (what officials call Highly Supervised duplexes) just adjacent to the correction center in that city. All the inmates in the program (1) would be from Jefferson County, and (2) would not be paid for their labor. But about 10 former inmates, all now on parole, would join the project, too, and they'd be paid for the hours they put in.
The city already spends about $90,000 a year to tear down dilapidated houses. So why not use the state grant to help with the job--and the free labor?
It seems some aldermen have Expressed Concerns that working with the state this way could take money away from contractors who are already in the demolition business. That would seem a legitimate concern--for the contractors. But for the aldermen? Shouldn't the folks elected to look after a city's tax dollars be more concerned with saving the public some money--not some private interest? City government shouldn't be confused with a jobs program.
As for concerns about having convicted criminals working in a neighborhood--and those are valid concerns--let's remember that one of the reasons for this proposed state-city project is to prepare inmates for the outside world. The world of work and responsibility. Lest we forget, these inmates are getting out of prison soon. They need to have some skills that would help them earn a living out in the freeworld.
Sometime next year, these prisoners should be free and walking the streets. Would the rest of us prefer they have jobs and be contributing members of the community, or just hang out with nothing to do? Keep in mind who staffs his workshop with idle hands.
Let's give those idle hands something to do, at least for the next three years. And clean up a lot of Pine Bluff, Ark., while we're at it.
Editorial on 08/21/2014