To the Editor:

I am writing this letter to commend Sheriff Craig Apple and his department for the Albany County inmate workforce program. The town of Berne has benefited from this program on work projects in the past, but this is the first time that I have been privileged to work alongside the participants of this program.

You may be surprised that I use the word “privileged,” but that is indeed the way I feel.

Over the past week, several of us undertook the considerable task of cleaning, painting, and sprucing up the inside of the lodge on Game Farm Road in preparation for a community meet and greet with the newly appointed project board last Friday night and a daylong board retreat the next day.

Our supervisor enlisted the help of the inmate work program, and between two and four female inmates and a rotating staff of officers helped us for four days.  I don’t know how we could have completed the task without them. 

It is difficult to say whether I was more impressed by the inmates or the officers.  The inmate workers worked tirelessly, doing everything we asked of them and more.  They conducted themselves as ladies.

They were polite, friendly, and thanked us repeatedly for the refreshments and lunches we provided them and for the opportunity to work for us in such a beautiful location.  The officers were professional and pleasant, and treated the workers not just with the utmost respect, which I had expected, but in a friendly and companionable manner that reminded me more of coworkers than officer and inmate.

One of the female officers had clearly taken on a mentoring role with her charges.  Over the four days, we all worked hard, we talked, we laughed, and we had fun being productive together.

Nationwide, the police force has been getting a bad rap lately.  I wish more people could have witnessed what took place in Berne last week.

Not only is the inmate work program valuable to communities for the labor it provides, it gives a chance for inmates to pay back the community in a way that allows them dignity and gives them a sense of self-worth.  It also gives them work experience and personal skills in the world that they soon will be re-entering.

I found value in the opportunity to treat four women with a life story less fortunate than my own with a respect and compassion that I am sure they have not always experienced in their lives.

I started the week looking with trepidation at an enormous amount of work.  I ended it with a greater respect for our county law enforcement officers and a program I now had experience with.  I ended it with a grateful heart.

Dawn Jordan, councilwoman

Town of Berne

Editor’s note: Inmates in Albany County’s workforce program are low-level offenders, supervised by officers.