New accord governs working inmates

The Department of Corrections, Department of Public Safety, and the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services have signed a memorandum of agreement governing the supervision of inmates who are eligible to work with these departments as part of DOC’s rehabilitation program.

According to DOC Commissioner Anthony Torres, he, DPS Commissioner Clement Bermudes, and DFEMS Commissioner Juan Pua signed last Dec. 1 the first MOU among the three departments regarding the supervision of working inmates.

“We’ve never had an MOU in the past and I knew it was something that needed to be done so that we have an understanding in place where expectations are set forth regarding proper supervision of inmates assigned to them,” he said.

Torres said the purpose of this MOU is to establish clear protocols for supervision, management, and utilization of inmate workers within DOC, DPS, and DFEMS.

“This MOU was established to formalize the guidelines for the effective supervision of assigned inmate workers and their appropriate identification. This MOU describes the roles and responsibilities of all parties in achieving these goals and objectives. There’s an expectation that officers are to supervise these inmates and, if they are caught doing anything, to hold them accountable and send them right back. In doing that, inmates assigned to DPS or DFEMS will be wearing identifiers, essentially uniforms specific to the department,” he said.

As part of the MOU, Torres said working inmates will be provided “identifiers” or uniforms that are color coded to a specific department.

A light blue shirt will be worn by inmates assigned to DPS, DFEMS inmate workers will wear orange, while green uniforms will be worn by inmates assigned to work at DOC or DOC outreach projects.

“These identifiers are placed so that the public knows that these inmates are not to be approached. In the past, inmates were allowed to wear civilian clothes and that is strictly prohibited moving forward,” he said.

Torres explained that these identifiers will help both officers and civilians identify inmates out in public to ensure that they are not doing anything questionable.

Community members who see inmates doing anything questionable, even if it’s just taking off their uniform or entering a store, are encouraged to call 911 to report this.

“If the public sees inmates outside in these identifiers doing questionable things, they should report it as soon as possible. The first step of rehabilitation is coupling it with accountability. We ask the community to help with accountability,” he said.

Currently, 14-16 working inmates are assigned to DPS, 14-16 are assigned to DFEMS, and about 15 are assigned to DOC and its outreach projects.