CLEVELAND, Tenn. - The Bradley County Sheriff's Office is working to clarify guidelines for how other county departments or nonprofit agencies may or may not use inmate laborers who are allowed to leave jail for certain tasks.
Sheriff Eric Watson discussed the matter recently with members of the Bradley County Commission's law enforcement committee.
"We need to know what our trusties are doing," said Watson. "I think we deserve that right, to know what they are doing and who is supervising them."
To that end, the sheriff's office is developing a memorandum of understanding addressing the types of work that inmates may do while under another agency's direct supervision, Watson said.
Watson voiced concerns with certain tasks that inmate trusties had performed for the Bradley County Road Department, citing a list of items that included working on roofs and filling holes in asphalt roads.
An injured inmate could easily result in a "major lawsuit," he said.
Watson added that going forward, county departments or organizations that want to use trusty labor will be required to sign a liability waiver. If an inmate is injured working for a department other than the sheriff's office, that department will be responsible for medical costs and must pay for a full-time officer to accompany the inmate during hospital stays.
No road department officials were present at the law enforcement committee meeting.
Inmate trusties have long been a part of Bradley County Road Department operations, said Gloria Hayes, the department's administrative assistant, in a phone interview.
Trusties have handled tasks ranging from picking up roadside litter and washing department vehicles to working on buildings, she said. The road department office sign was built by skilled inmate laborers, Hayes said.
All that ended early this spring after two trusties tested positive for drugs after serving on separate road department details. Hayes said the sheriff's office has not allowed the road department to use inmate labor since then.
On average, the road department used between four and six inmates a day to help the agency's 51 field staff members, she said.
"They were a tremendous help and they saved the taxpayers money," said Hayes.
The law enforcement committee also discussed the role of trusties in road department operations.
"It sounds like the road department is having a hard time functioning without inmates," said Bradley County Commission Vice Chairman Jeff Yarber, chairman of the law enforcement committee. "That's never a good way to do business - to rely so much on inmates that you can't run a department without them."
Paul Leach is based in Cleveland. Email him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com.