COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The state of Ohio will use prison inmates to pick up highway trash and save some of the $4 million spent each year on roadside cleanups.
The program begins Monday with minimum-security inmates from prisons in Grafton and Mansfield in northern Ohio.
The program will expand to prisons in Lima (LEYE'-muh), Columbus, Dayton, Nelsonville, London, Cleveland, Marysville, Orient, Chillicothe (chihl-ih-KAHTH'-ee) and Lancaster. Inmates will be used within 30 miles of their prisons.
The state has used inmates for highway cleanups in the past. This program results from a formal agreement effective Sunday between the Ohio Department of Transportation and the prison system.
Minimum-security inmates who participate must qualify for work outside the prison walls. Almost one-third of Ohio's nearly 50,000 inmates are classified as minimum or low security.
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