Sheriff’s Inmate Work Crew Paints it Forward at Petersham Center School
Program provides over Six Million Dollars in savings for Worcester County Communities
Petersham – Committed to making a positive difference both inside the Worcester County Jail & House of Correction and in the community, Worcester County Sheriff Lew Evangelidis has been providing inmate work crews to assist budget strapped cities and towns all over Worcester County. The Sheriff’s Inmate Community Service Program provides cost free labor to municipalities and non-profit organizations by non-violent, non-sex offender individuals who have earned a place in the program and under Sheriff Evangelidis the inmate work crews have been very hard at work.
Since taking office in January of 2011, Evangelidis has more than tripled the size of the Inmate Community Service Program providing Worcester County communities with an impressive six million dollars in savings along with over 1,000 work projects completed. Another plus from the Sheriff’s expanded program, inmates benefit as well by learning job skills and a sense of self worth and dignity that comes from a productive days work while the recipients, hundreds of local non-profit organizations and municipalities from throughout the county have had projects completed by the inmate work crews that they could not have afforded otherwise.
Most recently, the Sheriff’s inmate work program spent the week working at the Petersham Center School painting classrooms, hallways and the gymnasium during the school’s summer break. Under Evangelidis, the inmate work program has provided over $20,000 in savings in labor and maintenance costs for Petersham’s Center School.
“This program is a tremendous help to our school, the fresh paint in our classrooms, hallways and gymnasium looks great.” said Petersham Center School Principal Joanne Menard. “Having the inmate labor saves us an extraordinary amount of time, manpower and money to get these projects done and we can not thank the Sheriff enough for helping us out each year. It’s so great to see the inmates paint it forward and benefit from the program as well!” said Menard.
“In addition to our primary responsibility of public safety, our department is also proud to serve as a resource for Worcester County cities and towns. Through our inmate community service program, we not only save millions of dollars for our local communities but promote the idea that the inmates who work in this program, they are people trying to turn their lives around.” Evangelidis continued “These individuals have earned their way into this program, are giving back and the community benefits as well. With thousands of projects already completed county-wide, this week we were happy to help out at Petersham Center School. It’s a true win-win program.” said Sheriff Evangelidis.
