Residents may see inmates from the Newton County Jail out walking along roadways in coming days after the county’s new initiative to clean up trash along the sides of roads began Thursday.
The new program, which is being spearheaded by Newton County Sheriff’s Department, is putting county inmates to work picking up trash and improving the look of county roads.
Newton County Solid Waste officer Steve Smith, who supervises the inmates as part of his duties, said he plans to have inmates out gathering litter as much as possible.
“We’ll be out 3-4 days per week, weather permitting,” he said.
Smith’s salary and the equipment are being funded through grants from Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and Mississippi Department of Transportation. The days inmates are not out cleaning will be spent meeting the administrative duties required by the grants, he said.
Of course, Smith said, it will take some time to gather trash from all the roads throughout the county, and he asked residents to be patient as the inmates work their way through the five county beats.
Sheriff Joedy Pennington said all of the participants in the program are inmates of the Newton County Jail. He hopes they can continue to add more groups to help clean up the county.
“The goal is to start a second work crew around May or June,” Pennington said. “We ask that when you are driving to please be aware of the men working signs and to give them room so they can get the job done. This has been needed for a long time and it’s our goal to get the roads of our county cleaned up.”
