I am in a community service program called WWAM, or Work Weekend Alternative for Misdemeanants. I am a Misdemeanant of the worst kind and I finished my 10 days today. During this experience I learned a little about the community and how it handles correctional work programs. I worked mainly at Oakland County parks and nonprofit organizations. The work was easy, and breaks down into 4 categories basically.
My first thought was that the resource of free labor was being generated, and put to waste in areas that were trivial, or could better be accomplished by professionals. The reason for this must be that criminals are unsightly. Its also true that if we were applied regularly to a location that needed service, layoffs of maintenance and landscaping services would occur. This causes WWAM to pull out of frequent, local locations.
This is a good program, considering especially that I did not return to jail because of it. It is also the only one of its kind in Michigan. But It could be much greater if we were producing simple goods. Shucking corn, sewing, and assembly seem like doable, beneficial, discreet things that we could do. The only issue with this is that the production of these goods would fluctuate and be dependant on the amount of participants.
This is obviously an unsolved problem, but it would be too simple to assume the way things are, is the best way of doing things.
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