Sheriff's office reinvents crew of jail inmates.

Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard

LEABURG - On the steep slope of a power canal, an inmate work crew labored last week doing more than just clearing brush and trees that weaken the earthen structure. They also were rebuilding a venerable 20-year-old sheriff's program that nearly collapsed under budget-cutting pressure.

This is not the Sheriff's Road Crew, which formally ended on June 30 after a two-decade partnership with the county's Public Works Department.

Instead, it is the new Sheriff's Adult Work Crew that Lane County sheriff's Sgt. Dan Buckwald is marketing to local governments and nonprofit groups. For $75 an hour, with a minimum 10-hour commitment, a sheriff's deputy will supervise a 12-member work crew to do the labor-intensive work that parks departments, cities and other groups may let fall behind.

It's another example of creative public employees saving a much-needed service, Lane County Sheriff Russ Berger said.

The old road crew allowed the county corrections system to hold low-risk offenders accountable while conserving scarce jail beds for more serious criminals. With five deputies, a sergeant and one office worker, the old program could provide the equivalent of 240 inmate-days of labor weekly under a contract to work on county roads.

When the road money dried up in the new fiscal year, the road crew program nearly expired - shrinking to two deputies providing 98 inmate-days of labor weekly. Many inmates sentenced to work the road crew got off with little or no sweat.

Without a means of punishing low-risk offenders for crimes such as driving while suspended, probation violations or minor theft, the already overwhelmed public safety system was about to take another big hit, Berger said.

"What we have is a system that is in need of shoring up from top to bottom. What Dan Buckwald has done is take on a program that was about to be jettisoned," Berger said. "Also, it's such a tremendous benefit to the community, helping the area to look the way that it does."

The public will miss the old road crews when blackberry vines drape over guardrails, bike paths and pedestrian routes where the crews used to work. But the new adult work crews already are producing satisfied customers in government agencies that hire them to go where pesticide use is banned and machinery can't reach.

"They have completed more work in a shorter period of time than any other group we've had," said Dennis Cornelison, maintenance supervisor for the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission. "They have just done a superior job."

Along bike paths in Eugene and Springfield, the crews have cleared brush and cleaned out illegal campsites along the river to address public safety and water quality problems. In northwest Eugene, the crews are hacking a new park out of the blackberry tangles of the Golden Gardens area.

"I'm continually amazed how much they get done," said Richard Zucker, Eugene parks maintenance supervisor for vegetation control.

Buckwald, an 18-year veteran deputy, said the new work crew program is all about business - marketing a service to potential customers, ensuring worker safety, and following up for quality assurance. He intends to avoid competing with small private companies who provide similar services by focusing on government agencies and nonprofit groups.

Buckwald did similar contracting for other work crews in his former assignment at the sheriff's Forest Work Camp. The adult work crew is not a profit-making venture; the fee charged for the crew covers the cost of deputy supervision, insurance and tools.

"When you have a good program and you're passionate about it and you believe in it, it's easy to make the sale," he said. "It's all about going out and talking to people and putting business into government."