Non-profits benefit from criminal work program

WATERVLIET - On Election Day New Yorkers must decide if non-violent offenders will be allowed to do work that many non-profits say they can't survive without.

A similar program is already in effect in Albany County. A judge assigns someone to volunteer work instead of the jail.

This referendum would allow for parks and playground work and non-profit work.

"We don't have a lot of staff. We can't afford to pay people. So they send us people," explained Teresa Ashline of the Watervliet Senior Center, where a DUI offender spent Monday in the kitchen washing dishes and helping the cook.

Last year Albany County's work alternative program saved non-profits $50,000. But it saved taxpayers more than three times that in incarceration fees.

"They're not replacing anyone," Albany County Sheriff Jim Campbell said. "They're out there doing work that probably wouldn't get done in the first place if you didn't have this free service."

The benefit isn't just financial. Campbell believes the work truly rehabilitates low level, non-violent criminals. That's something jail is supposed to do, but doesn't always accomplish.

"It provides an inmate with solid working habits and in some cases some of the organizations actually hired the inmate after the sentence was up," the sheriff said.

Knowingly placing offenders with the public might worry some. But the sheriff calls the workers "cream of the crop" criminals -- people who certainly did something wrong, but who aren't a threat.

"These people have been wonderful. It's a wonderful program. We trust them. They do beautiful work," Ashline said.

The League of Women Voters, a non-partisan political organization, could not identify any organizations that oppose the referendum.