Less than two weeks after the Kentucky Department of Corrections banned inmates at the Mason County Detention Center in Maysville from helping to build houses for Limestone Habitat for Humanity, a compromise has cleared the way for prisoners to again volunteer for Habitat.
Although Mason County inmates have been helping to build Habitat houses for more than three years and the detention center had even received a $2,000 grant from the Kentucky Department of Justice to transport inmates to Habitat construction sites and to feed them while they were there, the corrections department ruled in early January that Habitat for Humanity was not qualified to use inmate labor.
At the time, we criticized the Department of Corrections’ decision as being short-sighted. We said in this space on Jan. 21 that corrections officials failed to see the long-term role Habitat can play in eliminating substandard housing. Instead, the department’s view of Habitat did not extend beyond the one house at a time the inmates were working on, and since each house benefits only one family, the department said Habitat did not qualify as a community service project.
However, Mason County Jailer Gerald Curtis said a compromise has been reached that will allow inmates to work on Habitat houses as long as the jail holds the deed to the property showing the work is being done for a nonprofit organization. Once the deed is transferred over to a private citizen, the inmates cannot work on the house because it would be for the benefit of a private individual. But by that time construction of the home will have been completed and inmate labor no longer would be needed.
While we still think the Department of Corrections view of Habitat and its work is nearsighted, the compromise at least allows the inmates to continue building for a good cause. We can think of no better way for them to spend their time and hone their skills while incarcerated.
