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Submitted by Katherine on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 7:25am.
Got to the shop today to find the City of Olympia probation crew (one supervisor and four guys) sweeping, blowing and steam cleaning the sidewalk on 4th ave between Adams and Jefferson. I never have a camera on me, so you'll just have to come by and check it out. You won't be able to tell it's Sunday morning on a block of bars! (I think they hit the alcove down the street next to the Ward's building as well. Most of us know it by its smell.) All people on the crew today are guys and look to be well under thirty, and are all non-violent offenders (mostly DUIs & possession charges, I think). It is so much better to see people spending time cleaning downtown instead of sitting in jail for a day or two.
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Sadly with all the budget
Submitted by Just another voice on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 10:29am.But I am Just Another Voice
That's...
Submitted by The Fire Inside on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 11:09am.Too bad. When I worked for the Parks & Recreation Department during the summer I would always see this crew out and about, too.
Maybe not
Submitted by Matthew Green on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 12:53pm.up the penalty
Submitted by Arts From The Heart on Mon, 07/28/2008 - 7:17am.Scott
But all is not lost!!!
Submitted by Katherine on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 11:19am.I work for OP&RD
Submitted by Laurian on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 1:46pm.and from 1st hand experience I know the probation crew takes living wage work away from non-criminals. I agree there may be some penitence value to the probation crew but as benevolent as the ProCrew may be, the crew is an up close and personal example Prison Economics.
A compelled workforce will alway undercut the wages of free market laborers. At best the ProCrew work off their fines at minimum wage. There are government employees and free market laborers more than willing to do the tasks the ProCrew currently does.
The work the ProCrew does may be valuable but it is deflating wages and denying opportunities that otherwise would go to working people who buy food, clothing, commodities and pay rent, people who might spend those earned dollars downtown. I'm afraid the labor done by the ProCrew is penny wise and pound foolish.
As a practical matter,
Submitted by Matthew Green on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 2:06pm.I suspect that the problem you describe doesn't actually happen much.
At least some of the work the probation crews do just wouldn't be done without them, for lack of money.
And if that work were actually done with paid staff, that just means the city has less money to hire staff to do some other work. Or else the city has to increase taxes to hire staff to do that other work, which takes money out of the private economy. Either way, there is no net gain in jobs.
Besides, the city actually spends less money supervising the probation crews at the work site than it would cost to supervise them in jail (or to pay some other jurisdiction to supervise them in jail). So the city has more money available for hiring more staff elsewhere.
In purely economic terms, probation crew work has the same effect as a stay-at-home parent entering the work force: more competition against other workers, but also more overall production, which more or less balance each other out.
Come on Matt
Submitted by Laurian on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 2:47pm.The problem I described happens every gosh darn day. The city may spend less supervising criminals in the field than in a cell, but factor in the costs of insuring and equipping them I'm pretty sure it comes out as a wash. Either way that does not address the issue to taking money from hard working non-criminals.
If the city cannot afford to pay a living wage for a task then it cannot afford to perform that task. If that task is valued then raise taxes, cut somewhere else, or create a PFD aka PBIA to pay for it. Paying for a desired government function that government cannot afford by using compelled labor is morally, ethically, and politically wrong regardless of how beneficial it might be. Without state and local government defending living wages, Olympia would be a economically depressed as most of Lewis county.
I support working off one's debt to society and have been a beneficiary of such a philosophy. I paid off several hundred dollars in traffic fines by doing an 'internship' with a local theater. That foot in the door payed off six months later with a well paid full time job with benefits. Pressure washing sidewalks or clearing brush does not provide the same kind of skills and contacts that working with non-profit organizations do, experience that can lead to gainful employment.
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Submitted by Rob Richards on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 3:08pm.The PBIA did fund this program, at least partially.
Submitted by Rob Richards on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 3:08pm.From this April 1st staff report:
BUDGET IMPACT/
SOURCE OF FUNDS:
The total cost for one Probation Work Crew Leader is $56,500. Initial funding for the pilot in-custody work crew project was obtained through funds in the existing Probation and Day Reporting budgets. That funding source sustained the program from August 2007 through December 2007.
The In-Custody work crew program requires Probation Services to maintain two FTE Work Crew Leader positions. One position is currently funded. The second is not funded for the 2008 budget. Funding commitments for 2008 were received from the following sources:
Public Works: 6,500 (Water Utility Fund 401)
OPD: 10,000 (General Fund 001)
CP&D: 2,000 (General Fund 001)
PBIA: 8,000 (PBIA Fund 135)
As proposed by this request, funding will be transferred from the above designated sources to Day Reporting Work Crew Program. The transfer is appropriate, has been anticipated by all parties above and is available without major impacts to projects/services provided by those departments.
Actually
Submitted by Guglielmo on Mon, 07/28/2008 - 9:03am.Restorative Justice,
Submitted by Rob Richards on Sun, 07/27/2008 - 3:09pm.Also, if they weren't doing this work, it would likely go undone. Ask Katherine what her storefront and alley looked like before they started and it was all on the city staff to maintain.
I think this program shows that our local courts recognize the community building value of volunteerism, and that's great. I hate the entire concept of jails as we know them, and this program is a great alternative.
I also disagree that this taking living wage jobs from people. The city is looking at cutting between somewhere between 2 and 8 million dollars from this year's budget, depending on who you ask. That doesn't make it seem like they're in a position to be creating new jobs.