Commissioner Martin F. Horn
PA Department of Corrections
2520 Lisburn Road
P.O. Box 598
Camp Hill, PA 17001-0598
Dear Commissioner Horn:
I am writing this letter at the request of Major J.D. Shutt, regarding the Agricultural Advisory Board's suggestion that inmates be used to clean up bottles, cans, and other debris that are discarded on farm fields, adjacent to roadways.
The Agricultural Advisory Board to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is a legislatively mandated Board comprised of farmers, farm organization representatives, state legislators, and state and federal agency representatives. The Board's purpose is to review and provide comments on Department policies, rules, and regulations that have an impact or a potential impact on agriculture or the agricultural community.
At the Board's August 28, 1996 meeting, the members had the opportunity to discuss with DEP Secretary James Seif, their concerns regarding the Department's opposition to the proposed bottle bills pending in the Legislature. The members expressed concern that often bottles and cans are discarded into agricultural fields that are adjacent to roadways, which causes considerable damage to expensive farm equipment and tires. Glass bottles and aluminum cans cannot be detected by metal detectors or magnets, so livestock may ingest this material which causes health problems or death. At the August meeting, it was suggested by one of the Board members that perhaps inmates from the PA Department of Corrections could be used to clean up bottles, cans, and other debris which are discarded along roadways and into adjacent farm fields. This would help to alleviate the problems faced by farmers as noted above.
The Board received a copy of the Department of Correction's Community Work Programs Policy, Policy 7.14.1, effective date of october 16, 1995, and we reviewed this policy at our October Board meeting. From our understanding, this policy appears that inmates in Community Work Programs are allowed to perform work details for community work programs, public service projects, and community service projects for federal, state, or county agencies, and non-profit organizations, on publicly owned property. After some discussion regarding this policy, the Board felt strongly that the use of inmates to clean trash out of farm fields adjacent to roadways is beneficial to the agricultural community, and should warrant some consideration by the PA Department of Corrections.
Perhaps your Community Work Programs Policy could be revised to allow for the use of inmates to enter private property to collect litter discarded into farm fields adjacent to roadways. The Board's feeling was that the benefit of having the inmates enter private property to collect trash discarded in farm fields, outweighed any concerns the agricultural community would have about having inmates enter onto private property. It appears that you have rigid eligibility requirements regarding what inmates may participate in Community Work Programs. Although I am not familiar with your custody codes or your program codes regarding inmates, it appears that inmates eligible for the Community Work Programs are carefully screened and present little threat to the locations where the work details are performed. If the Board's proposal was enacted, the work that these inmates would perform would greatly benefit the agricultural community of the Commonwealth.
The Board would welcome the opportunity to further discuss this proposal with you at a future Board meeting. If you have any further questions or concerns please feel free to contact me at 717-561-7200.
Sincerely,
Robert C. Junk, Jr.
Chairperson
Agricultural Advisory Board