The University is giving convicted criminals a chance to experience life on the other side of the bars.
For the past 16 years, the University has partnered with nearby correctional institutes like the Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson, La., and Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel as part of its Inmate Green Labor program.
Fred Fellner, assistant director of landscape services, said workers perform tasks from landscaping flower beds and ditches around campus to cleaning the entirety of River Road, but the program tends to shy away from busier areas.
“We don’t work in the center of campus when there’s a heavy student population,” Fellner said.
Since the program’s inception, Fellner said there have never been any major safety problems involving the inmates.
Fellner said all participants are nonviolent criminals and some are close to being released. A guard is on site and watches the inmates at all times.
Janet Lorena, deputy warden at Dixon Correctional Institute, said in an e-mail that inmates are carefully selected and are defined as nonviolent by the institute.
Lorena said inmates must meet certain qualifications to be eligible for the program. Offenders can’t show signs of consistent violent behavior, be convicted of sex-related crimes or have any escape attempts in the last seven years, among other criteria.
Despite their backgrounds, most students aren’t worried about the inmates.
Chemical engineering freshman Krissy Ordemann hadn’t seen or heard of the landscaping inmates before, but said she isn’t worried about her safety.
“If they’re allowed to be outside, they’re trusted,” Ordemann said.
Kinesiology freshman Jeremy Washington said he wasn’t concerned as long as the group had a guard watching them.
The program saves the University a considerable amount of money.
The University pays for the fuel required for the group to travel to campus, the correctional officer’s time, meals for the inmates, tools used in landscaping and additional services like portable toilets for the trustees to use while they work, according to Fellner.
All together, Fellner estimated the price paid for the inmates’ labor, about $3.31 per inmate per hour, is only one-fourth of what the University would pay for a regular employee. He guessed the program saves the University more than $100,000 per year.
Although Fellner said the program has been in place at the University for about 16 years, Lorena said DCI has only participated in the Inmate Green Labor program since 2002.
The trustees from DCI are a special horticultural group of inmates who come to the University for a five-day period once every month, Fellner said.
These inmates landscape around buildings and work in flower beds. They are also the workers who enter Mike the Tiger’s cage when it needs to be cleaned, according to Fellner.
The group from Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, called I.M.P.A.C.T., is a more militaristic, disciplined unit that works at the University about five to six times a month. This group’s work is labor-intensive and more physically taxing, Fellner said.
Although the University is facing significant budget shortages and the Inmate Green Labor program is a proven way for the University to save money, Fellner said the program has reached its maximum capacity because the costs and risks involved with contracting institutes that are farther away would be higher.
Fellner said the work the inmates do for the University is invaluable.
“It’s like they’re a whole other wing of Facility Services,” Fellner said.
He said without the help the inmates provide, the University wouldn’t have enough manpower to cover the nearly 1,000 acres of land that comprises the entirety of the campus.
“Without them, the beauty of the campus would deteriorate,” he said.
The program also benefits the inmates.
Lorena said the program helps prepare the trustees for life outside of prison.
“For re-entry efforts to be successful, the offender must enter society with practical skills and a viable work ethic,” Lorena said. “It’s a win-win situation, enabling inmates to acquire or retain skills and work habits needed to secure honest employment after their release. Under the supervision of correctional officers, offenders learn the value of a day’s work.”
 
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Contact Kevin Thibodeaux at [email protected]