Union: Don’t use inmates for Statehouse work
Prisoners would work on groundskeeping and night cleaning.
COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio wants to use prisoners to replace Statehouse janitors and groundskeepers who were laid off because of budget cuts, angering a labor union.
The state board that operates the building says it will probably use two inmates to do grounds work and five more for night cleaning.
The Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, the state’s largest public employees’ union and the one that represented the laid-off workers, filed a grievance Wednesday to reverse the plan.
“These aren’t phantom jobs — these are real jobs, real people,” said Sally Meckling, union spokeswoman.
The union said it’s wrong to substitute inmate labor for good-paying union jobs.
It also questioned the wisdom of allowing inmates to work in the frequently visited, 147-year-old Statehouse.
The Statehouse needs the inmates because it has lost 17 employees since January because of budget cuts, William Carleton, executive director of the Capital Square Review and Advisory Board, said Thursday.
“Get the money reinstated, and we’ll bring the employees back,” Carleton said. “I’m not the one who cut the budget.”
Gov. Ted Strickland ordered $640 million sliced from state government operations in December, including 5.75 percent across-the-board cuts to all but the most vital programs.
That brought total cuts for the current budget year to $1.9 billion.
A guard will supervise the inmates, who will wear clothes identifying them as prisoners.
Ohio also uses carefully screened inmates to garden at the governor’s residence in Bexley in suburban Columbus, to build furniture and work on cars at a prison factory, and to clean along highways.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, based in Washington, D.C., said it’s unaware of any other state directly replacing laid-off workers with inmates.
Prisoners from the old Ohio State Penitentiary helped build the Statehouse foundation and ground floors during its construction from 1839 to 1861.
The practice was controversial then, and the prisoners were removed after tradesmen complained they were losing out on good-paying jobs, according to an advisory board history of the Statehouse.