Report: About half of jail inmates walk away from work release

Does anyone else find this to be unacceptable? Maybe Sheriff Joe has something with his chain gangs. YumaSun.com > News: "TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- About half the inmates on work release programs walk away from Pima County's minimum-security jail, according to Sheriff's Department figures. Judges assign about 300 inmates a year to such programs. Inmates in the program have been convicted of crimes that include drunken driving, failure to pay child support and drug possession. From Jan. 1 to Dec. 16, 2004, 155 people failed to report back to the jail, a recent report by the jail's staff showed. Capt. Judy Hendrickson, who heads the jail's support services division, said the jail recently began tracking the number of inmates who escape while on work release. She estimated that roughly 55 more inmates escaped in 2004 compared to previous years. Hendrickson said 117 who have escaped since early July 2001 are missing. While the jail population has gone up, there is one person to monitor the more than 130 inmates on work furlough."