During the Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, the county discussed whether the work release program was worth keeping as part of a larger discussion on a request by Sheriff James Woodruff for increased deputy pay.
The sheriff said the raises are needed to help prevent TCSO from losing employees to other law enforcement agencies, particularly to LaGrange, which just increased their starting pay to $60,000. TCSO currently pays its new deputies $42,000.
Woodruff said he needs increased pay for his deputies to compete but closing work release is not the way to get the funds.
The work release program started about 20 years ago, according to Woodruff. It was originally part of the prison system back when the county ran the correctional institute.
“It was a great idea and still is a great idea,” Woodruff said.
Woodruff said before work release, when someone with a good job does something foolish and gets convicted of a misdemeanor and sentenced to months in jail, the only choice was to go to the jail and do the time.
“If you are sentenced to 12 months, with good behavior, you could get out in six months, but nobody is going to hold your job for six months. So, somebody came up with the idea for work release,” Woodruff said.
Woodruff explained that low-level offenders in the program can leave jail to work while serving out their sentences.
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