SASKATOON – Inmates in a program at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre are giving back to the community.
On top of helping clean up the city, the Saskatoon Correctional Centre’s Urban Camp donated about 20,000 lbs of produce from its fall harvest to the Saskatoon Food Bank and St. Mary’s Community School on Tuesday.
They’ve been around Saskatoon this summer doing the dirty work like cutting grass and picking up litter.
“It gives them a sense of pride. It gives them a sense of giving back to the community that they have taken from,” said Giles Saulnier, deputy director of the urban camp.
“So every morning they have a purpose in getting up going and doing community work.”
The urban camp provides inmates the opportunity to transition back into society.
The program’s initiative with the city has been ongoing for three years.
“I saw a program when I came into the program that had an average count of approximately 30 offenders and right now for the last five years, we’ve been having an average of 50 offenders on any given day,” said Saulnier.
Before inmates are given the green light to enter the program, they have to go through a screening process.
The inmate’s hard work and impact on the city hasn’t gone unnoticed. The provincial minister of corrections sees it spreading to other cities in Saskatchewan.
“It is such a win-win and it’s a positive for the community and positive for the inmates and why wouldn’t we,” said Christine Tell.
Urban camp serves a 100 kilometer radius around Saskatoon.
The demand is so high, community agencies are already booking crews well into 2014.
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