The Norfolk Sheriff’s Office Inmate Workforce Program provides free labor and equipment assistance for City of Norfolk Departments, Civic Leagues, and 501 © Non-Profit Organizations.

The Inmate Workforce provides full landscaping services and cleanup assistance for the following city departments or sites: Norfolk Cemeteries, Fire Department, Parking Division, Public Works, School Bus Garage, Scope, Water Treatment Facilities, and the Zoo. Major city events assisted each year are Harborfest, Festevents, and city parades. A total of 153 civic leagues and nonprofit organizations received assistance from our Inmate Workforce Program in 2008. Our trash pickup program for civic leagues collected over 11,800 bags which equates to over 393 tons of trash in 2008. Inmate Workforce offenders provided 231,400 free labor hours for the city of Norfolk in 2008.

Using $7.90 an hour for labor costs and $41.13 a day for average jail cost, the Inmate Workforce provided the taxpayers of Norfolk a savings of $2,310,000 in 2008.

In the last eight years, the Inmate Workforce has provided the City of Norfolk an estimated cost savings of $25,000,000.

Our Work Release Program provides paid employment with private employers for nonviolent offenders.

The average rate of pay per hour is $9.47. In 2008, an average daily population of over 50 inmates served their jail sentence working for a private employer during the day and served their jail sentence at night in the jail. Norfolk Sheriff’s Office staff located over 185 new jobs for offenders in 2008 which the offenders can keep once they are released from custody.

Additional services provided by the Work Release Program include intensive drug treatment on site for offenders in need of alcohol and drug treatment, anger management and life skills development.

The Work Release Program collected over $200,000 in child support and over $50,000 in court costs/restitution in 2008 which helps with our goal of easing the transition from incarceration to the community for offenders.

The GPS or Electronic Monitoring Program continues to be a model for the State of Virginia.

Our office uses Global Positioning Systems to monitor nonviolent offenders in the community serving a jail sentence. These offenders serve their sentence at home and are monitored 24 hours a day by satellite.

In 2008, 227 offenders participated in the program for a total of 16,846 supervision days. The success rate has average about 94% for the past five years for the GPS program. Due to the fact these offenders serve their sentence at home and must pay for their drug treatment for private vendors, the 16,846 supervision days were actually jail days saved. This provided the City of Norfolk $692,876 in cost savings last year.

In the past five years, the GPS Program has provided the City of Norfolk over $3,400,000 in cost savings for offenders serving their jail sentence at home rather than in the jail.

Each weekend, the Norfolk Sheriff’s Office allows nonviolent offenders to serve their weekend jail sentence working in the community doing civic league projects to improve their neighborhoods.

In 2008, a total of 2,541 offenders served their jail sentence on weekends. A total of 5,083 supervision days and 50,573 labor hours were accumulated in 2008 which provided a cost savings of $613,605 to the City of Norfolk.

One of our successful projects each year is assisting civic leagues in neighborhood trash pickups. Our trash pickup program for civic leagues on weekends collected over 11,800 bags which equates to over 393 tons of trash in 2008.

For assistance in your community, please call 664-4948 or fax a request to 664-4723 with a contact person and phone number for your next neighborhood cleanup. Please call or fax at least two to four weeks before the date of your event. Due to the popularity of this program, available dates go fast.

The goal of the Norfolk Sheriff's Office Prostitution Intervention Program is to alleviate streetwalking prostitution in the City of Norfolk.

The Norfolk Sheriff’s Office “John School” is offered six times a year. Participants are required to report to the Norfolk City Jail to be booked at 6:45 am on a Saturday. Transportation is provided to an area recreation center where they are tested for Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD), which is paid for by the individuals, and learn about the health risks associated with prostitution. There is also a presentation by
former prostitutes and a “restorative justice confrontation” with various community leaders. The program continues on Sunday
with a Community Service day, which includes work projects selected by the Civic leaders in the neighborhoods where the Johns are arrested.

The first John School was held September 9, 2001. A total 487 offenders have completed the 35 John Schools, which have been held at the Recreation Centers in Ocean View, Park Place, Huntersville and Little Creek.

No John School graduates have been re-arrested.

The Norfolk Sheriff’s Office John School Program has built community partnerships with -

The Norfolk Police Department
Norfolk Commonwealth Attorney’s Office
Department of the Navy
Civic Leagues
Second Chances Program
Norfolk Health Department

Please call 664-4979 for the location
and time of the next John School.