Kan. county: School bus to carry working inmates

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EL DORADO, Kan. (AP) -- For years, a south-central Kansas county used minimum security inmates from a local prison to provide low-cost help for public works projects. But with budget cuts forcing the state to transfer the inmates 50 miles away, Butler County faced a financial dilemma.

Local officials think they have a solution: a school bus.

County leaders hope to bus in as many as 40 minimum-security inmates four days a week from a prison in Winfield, where the inmates were transferred after the state closed the minimum-security wing at a correctional facility in El Dorado.

"All the (local government) parties are extremely happy we're not going to lose that labor force," said County Commissioner Randy Waldorf. "It would have been a huge hit for us."

The county plans to borrow a bus from a local school district until it buys its own, said County Administrator Will Johnson. The bus will carry prisoners for 100 miles, round trip, to and from the Winfield Correctional Facility.

Johnson said the inmate-workers are all considered low risks for escape and are supervised in essentially the same manner as regular public employees. A retired police officer or sheriff's deputy will probably be hired as the prison bus' regular driver, he said.

The county used the prison workers in the past to do maintenance and construction work in public buildings, parks and landfills. Losing the inmates -- who are paid $1.05 a day -- would have cost the state and Butler County government about $1 million a year in labor.

The El Dorado prison wing was ordered closed by July 1, as the state Department of Corrections works to trim its fiscal 2010 budget by about $6 million. Shutting the minimum-security unit is projected to save the state about $1.2 million a year, corrections officials said.

Local officials said the inmates' help is especially needed to complete cleanup and maintenance work at El Dorado State Park.

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Information from: The Wichita Eagle, http://www.kansas.com