ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - “Sometimes it feels like we are living in a garbage dump.”
Those are the words of former Missouri Circuit Judge Ted House while describing the trash on area highways during a recent appearance with me on KMOX.
“Litter is a real problem and it is something we can control,” he also added.
While serving on the bench, House introduced a program allowing convicts to work off their community service sentences by picking up litter.
Along with the Missouri Department of Transportation and the state’s Division of Probation and Parole, House started a program allowing convicts in nonviolent felony cases to pay off their debts to society by cleaning up local roads.
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The program started in 2018 but was halted in the pandemic. It is expected to resume soon.
“The probationers like it,” House said. “They feel like they are doing something meaningful and helpful.”
What about detainees in jails or prisons? Arizona, for example, pays its incarcerated residents to pick up highway litter.
“We have talked to the Department of Corrections,” House said. “They do not want to use actual inmates. Their response is, ‘Our job is to keep people IN prison, not supervise them OUTSIDE of prison.’”
House feels Missouri has enough people on felony probation to provide the necessary labor to clean up the area.
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