Fairfield to hire prisoners to work in parks department

FAIRFIELD - The Fairfield City Council has approved a plan to hire prisoners to work in its parks department.

The decision was made at the April 13 city council meeting where the council approved an agreement with the Iowa Department of Corrections to hire as many as six prisoners from the Mt. Pleasant Correctional Facility.

Fairfield City Administrator Aaron Kooiker said the Department of Corrections bills the city $5.25 per person per day. The amount the prisoners receive is $5.04 per day. According to the contract, the prisoners are not intended to replace non-prison workers, and that they are only doing jobs that would otherwise go unfilled.

'We are still hiring part-time help to assist in the park,” Kooiker said. 'Normally, we can hire enough help, so we are intending to supplement what we do hire with the Department of Corrections.”

Kooiker said the prisoners would mostly perform lawn work in the park.

'That could be expanded to help with the street department, but we are not sure at this time,” he said.

Kooiker said he's not sure how the prisoners are screened before they are allowed to work in the program since that is the purview of the Department of Corrections. He did say that he thinks it's good that prisoners are learning skills to allow them to become productive members of society.

In the contract, it states that prisoners are ineligible for this program if they have engaged in sexual abuse in a prison or other facility, or been convicted of engaging or attempting to engage in sexual activity by force.