City and county finalizing deal on inmate labor crew
EL CENTRO — Imperial County and El Centro are working out the details on an agreement that would allow a crew of County Jail inmates to provide outdoor labor around the city.
A memorandum of understanding is pending approval for the activation of the crew, which will be made up of inmates who are low-risk, non-violent and cleared to be out of the facility.
The city approved its portion of the MOU on Oct. 6.
The MOU now will be submitted to the county Board of Supervisors no later than November, an Imperial County Sheriff’s Office corrections lieutenant said Friday.
Once the MOU is finalized, it will be in effect for two calendar years.
The ICSO inmate work crew shall be available to work anywhere within El Centro city limits three days per week, excluding weekends and holidays. The schedule is not to exceed 24 hours per week.
The crew will be assisting the city’s Public Works street maintenance division and Community Services parks division with any needed work.
Work the crew will be allowed to do include routine maintenance and debris removal, cleanup of alleys and sidewalks, graffiti removal, trash removal, plant restoration, ground cleaning, and other routine and custodial maintenance tasks.
The inmate crew will also help city street maintenance staff with encampment-related cleanup from parks and other areas throughout the city.
The El Centro City Council unanimously approved the MOU after hearing a presentation on how the crew will be cost-efficient and come at a time where the city is in need of more boots on the ground for such work.
The yearly cost for the crew will be $113,654.03.
The equivalent yearly cost to add 10 city employees (Street Maintenance Worker I) for the same 24 hour per week schedule would be approximately $400,000.
“That’s a pretty good investment and return,” El Centro City Mayor Efrain Silva said.
The city plans to use a combination of Measure P, Measure D and its general park fund to pay for the two-year contract.
The city’s engineer Abraham Campos said that, currently, for typical alley cleanup projects, there are one or two city staff members operating
large equipment, while only two other staffers are on the ground cleaning up the debris.
This means the operator is often waiting for debris to be collected.
“Bottom line is, we’d get a lot more work done,” Campos said of the addition of the inmate crew.
Additionally, the crew will free up other city staff so that the staff could work on other projects.
Addressing any potential danger the crew could pose to the public, Campos explained that the inmates involved will be at the end of their sentences.
“For minor crimes, nothing dangerous,” he said. “So the risk of escape, which has been brought up, is minor, because they would be basically losing their opportunity to get out. They’re basically at the tail end of their sentence.”
ICSO Sgt. Aaron Arreola will be the project manager for the crew.
The ICSO shall provide one 10-passenger van, utility trailer with portable restroom and handwashing station and all necessary work and safety equipment for a particular work project.
In the event an inmate is injured on the job, ICSO will be responsible for providing medical care and transportation to a medical facility, the MOU stated.
Once the county approves the MOU, then ICSO can begin purchasing the needed equipment (van, trailer, tools, etc.) needed to conduct the work, the ICSO lieutenant explained.
However, ICSO would also need to wait until the state moves the county into an appropriate COVID-19 reopening tier so that the crew can begin.
The ICSO spokesman said the Sheriff’s Office already has inmate crews that have been halted in precaution to COVID.
“We have a Cal-Trans crew and a county Public Work Crew that have not gone out to work due to the COVID restrictions, as well as for the safety of our inmate workers,” he said.
The exact date the city of El Centro inmate crew will begin work could not be publicly disclosed, the lieutenant said.
El Centro has used inmate labor on much more limited basis in the recent past. They’ve been engaged for temporary work such as railroad and alley cleanup.
Councilwoman Cheryl Viegas-Walker noted the idea of the El Centro inmate crew has been in front of the community services commission for quite some time.
“It’s really great to see it come forward at this point in time,” she said.