July 14, 2021
Jim Evancho
The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office has a specialized litter patrol that operates in throughout the county. The litter patrol consists of three retired law enforcement professionals and inmates that volunteer for the position. Calhoun County Sheriff Matthew Wade stated that the inmates do enjoy getting out of the jail setting and some have expressed pride in helping to clean up what inconsiderate others have discarded on the sides of roadways. Each inmate that requests to be on the work detail must be non-violent and not present a danger to the community in order to be considered. Once approved the inmates reside in a dorm setting vs. being in a cell and “they are able to enjoy a lot of outdoor time”, said Wade.
The June employee of the month at the Sheriff’s Office was Officer Jason Smith who runs the litter patrol. He and two others work within the litter patrol and other work details to help the community be a better place. For the month of June the Sheriff was happy to report that the litter patrol picked up over 6,500 pounds of trash, which equals over 3 tons, left behind by some of the uncaring public.
The litter patrol works Monday – Friday and the area’s they clean up are identified through Facebook requests or they will patrol the county roads and work areas that they identify as littered. The Sheriff told the Calhoun County Journal that the litter patrol works in the unincorporated parts of the county which is an extremely large area.
The Sheriff said that there are many public services that inmates help with in the county. They do the work because they choose to and if they stop wanting to work on the volunteer details there are no questions asked and the inmate is not required to continue. Inmates that do choose to work on the detail’s do not receive any time off their sentence or financial benefit.
