VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Virginia Beach Sheriff's Office is implementing changes to its inmate workforce program.
As summer approaches, residents can expect to no longer see inmates in orange jumpsuits mowing in the medians across the city.
Sheriff Rocky Holcomb explained that this shift is due to budget considerations.
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"We didn’t see a lot of bang for the buck in the grass cutting," Holcomb said.
The Sheriff's Office's inmate workforce is comprised of low-risk offenders who are eager to repay their debt to society and get back into the community doing jobs under deputy supervision.
Previously, the inmate workforce helped maintain city lawns, but the sheriff noted that this arrangement did not generate significant revenue.
Instead, the contract for grass cutting will now be handled by a different city department.
"We would bid on the contract and get the contract, so it's city money coming to us but we're giving it back to the city, so there was no real revenue for us doing that," Holcomb said. "It was better just to send it out and use the inmates a little differently."
Moving forward, the inmate workforce will still be used for various projects throughout the city.
Plans include painting and cleaning up litter at city parks and municipal property.
City leaders support this initiative, especially since the current litter cleanup team consists of only four or five members.
"Along VB Trail, we're getting that started and we're looking at there's a lot of avenues on where to go first," Councilman David Hutcheson said.
