Inmate Labor Saves County Millions Annually

Inmate labor through the Carroll County Prison is estimated at saving the county more than $3.7 million annually, providing construction, janitorial and other services that would otherwise need to be done by county employees; the county would inevitably have to hire more employees to do this work, coming at an ultimate cost to the taxpayer.

Anyone who has traveled around Carroll County has seen at least one of the 32 different labor details that go out every day, but what most people don’t realize is how many different services the 170 inmates in the labor program provide for local residents, said Deputy Prison Warden Tim Tant.

From doing roadwork to restoring the Historic Train Depot in downtown Carrollton to cutting the trails at Little Tallapoosa Park to taking care of the cats and dogs at the county animal shelter, the tasks set before the inmates are both big and small, simple and complex. If the county had to hire additional employees to do the work the inmates do free of charge, it would certainly come at a substantial cost to the county, and services to residents would ultimately be affected, Tant said.

“I don’t know if we could keep up animal control if it weren’t for the inmate laborers,” he said. “It’s a big-time savings to the county in so many different areas.”

According to numbers from Prison Warden Jason Driver, the net savings for the county that comes because of inmate labor is slightly more than $5.5 million a year, based upon a 40-hour work week at $12 an hour with benefits included. The hourly rate is based upon an average of inmate workers doing skilled labor, like masonry or electrical work—which pays roughly $25 an hour in the private sector—coupled with inmates doing unskilled work, which pays a standard minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

The total appropriation for the prison in the 2010-2011 fiscal year is $3.2 million, though $1.5 million of that is paid by the state, as the local prison houses state inmates. The final cost to the county of feeding and housing the inmates—about $1.7 million a year—can then be taken from the net savings, and it comes to an actual savings of just under $3.8 million annually.  The yearly savings translates to roughly 7 percent of the county’s total budget.

"When I was first elected chairman, I did not believe that Carroll County citizens were getting value from having the state prisoners in the county. The warden at the time was down at least four detail officers and had made no move to fill them. That translated into 48 men sitting inside the prison, not working or being productive for the benefit of citizens. That has changed,” Chappell said. “We are now getting positive value from inmate labor. In addition, we are getting quality work from the inmate construction crews."