BY ANDY GARDNER

North Country This Week

CANTON -- Inmates serving sentences at the St. Lawrence County Correctional Facility can now apply for a work release program.

The county Board of Legislators passed a resolution to create the program at their Monday, Oct. 7 meeting. There was no discussion prior to the vote.

Participants will be able to leave the jail to either work or receive vocational education and would return to jail at the end of the day. In order to qualify, inmates must not have a previous history of crime, violence, sexual offense or serious drug offense. They must also not have a history of escape or attempted escape.

The resolution the board approved does not allow inmates to work in positions where they would displace existing workers, or to enter into a trade or craft “in which there is a surplus of available labor in the locality.” There is an exception for inmates who had one of those jobs prior to the beginning of their sentence.

Participating inmates must also be paid at a rate and work under conditions that “are at least equal to those paid or provided for work of a similar nature” in the same locality.

Inmates also will not participate in work release where there is a labor strike or lockout.

The sheriff is also required to create a work release board and submit annual reports on the program to the country legislature by March 1 of each year.