INMATES DONATE COMPUTERS TO CAMPUS : THIEVES TOOK SCHOOL'S MACINTOSHES, SO PRISONERS PASSED ALONG UNITS THEY FIXED.

Byline: Yvette Cabrera Daily News Staff Writer

Behind bars but not beyond a good deed, a group of prison inmates came to the rescue of a San Fernando middle school Wednesday by putting their computer know-how to work.

Inmates from the California State Prison-Los Angeles County replaced five Macintosh computers stolen in January from San Fernando Middle School with seven computers that they had rebuilt.

The newly installed units will be used by the school's Special Education Department.

``We're extremely grateful that now our students will be able to continue preparing for the future, especially with computers so commonplace in the world of work,'' said Principal Arturo del Rio, after the computers were presented during a ceremony on campus.

``We were told by the warden that the inmates in a sense felt it should go to children who were victims of crime,'' said del Rio, whose school enrolls 1,950 students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

The school couldn't afford to replace the five stolen computers, which were used in the main administration building for secretarial work, del Rio said.

And no one offered to replace the machines, until a prison employee heard about the theft and informed Warden Ernie Roe, who decided to help the school through its Computers for Schools program.

``This was a perfect opportunity for children who are the victims of crime to benefit directly by inmate labor,'' said Roe, in a prepared statement.

The students, in turn, wrote thank-you letters to the inmates.

The statewide program is sponsored by the private, nonprofit Detwiler Foundation, which solicits obsolete and surplus computers from private industry. The inmates refurbish and repair the units as part of the prison system's Vocational Education Program.

``The inmates are giving back to the community while they are learning a marketable skill,'' said Lynn Harrison, community resources manager for the maximum- and medium-security prison in Lancaster. ``And ultimately the school system will benefit by having the refurbished computers in their classrooms.''

While the foundation selects the recipients of 80 percent of the refurbished computers, each prison determines the recipients for the remaining computers.

``Our computers go strictly to schools in the local area, and San Fernando Middle School was specifically selected because of their theft,'' Harrison said.

The 2-year-old program now operates in 14 of the 32 prisons run by the state Department of Corrections. The 60 inmates enrolled in the Los Angeles County prison's Vocational Education Program have received 3,300 donated computers and have produced 2,300 refurbished units so far, Harrison said.

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