News Photo by Julie Riddle Deputy Louis Robinson stands in the doorway of the new transport bus for the Presque Isle County Sheriff’s Office work release program Friday. The work crew, permitted to do a day’s labor in exchange for three days of jail time, was clearing brush around the Millersburg water tower.

MILLERSBURG — Which is better, three days in jail or one day of hard work?

A work release program run by the Presque Isle County Sheriff’s Office allows people convicted of misdemeanor crimes to cut time off of their jail sentence or avoid jail altogether by putting in a hard day’s work.

For each eight-hour day worked, the participant can be forgiven for three days’ jail time.

Twice a week, a black bus with a gold star on the side heads somewhere in the county, loaded with supplies and workers ready to earn their freedom under the supervision of Deputy Louis Robinson.

Retiring in 2014 after 39 years of work at the Sheriff’s Office, Robinson was called back to uniformed duty in 2016, requested to oversee the men and women who sign up for the sheriff’s work release program.

Robinson takes his crew out on Thursdays and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., year-round. Sentenced defendants offered the option of work release don’t have to participate, Robinson said. Time in jail is always an alternative.

Those wishing to be a part of the program are responsible for signing up and showing up, making sure they work the required number of eight-hour days in the alloted period of time, which could be anywhere from a week to two months.

If someone says they’ll be there for a work day but doesn’t show up, Robinson said, he reports their absence, which could land them in jail for a few days.

In addition to any court costs and fines assessed, participants pay $10 a day to be part of the program.

The day’s workers usually meet at the jail early in the morning. Almost anything could be on the agenda. Robinson’s crews have painted, cleaned, repaired, and beautified vast swaths of Presque Isle County in the program’s 10-plus years of existence. In winter, the crew does indoor work or clears sidewalks and fire hydrants of winter’s bounty.

“We shovel a lot of snow,” Robinson said with an emphatic head nod.

When there’s nothing else to do, crews clean trash from back roads. His goal is to do trash patrol on every road in the county.

Campgrounds, churches, county buildings, garages, parks, community centers and yards have benefitted from the hard-working hands of people who, as Robinson puts it, “were most of ’em probably just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

In his years as supervisor, Robinson has never had trouble with any of his workers. They do good work for him, he said, preferring to put their bodies to work, possibly learning some new life skills, than to sit behind bars.

Many of those in the work release program are people Robinson knows from living in the community, people with whom he has developed a relationship over the years.

While supervising a neighbor or the relative of a friend may be uncomfortable, Robinson doesn’t see that as a hindrance to his job.

“I don’t care if you’re my cousin or best friends, this is the job we gotta do, and we gotta do it,” he said. “It works out.”

Robinson sees his work with the defendants-turned-workers as a gift to the community and also an opportunity for the men and women on his crews. “They’re pretty thankful to come and work for me one or two days a week instead of sitting a lot of days in jail,” Robinson said.

The jail, too, benefits from the work release program, which frees up more breathing room in its often overcrowded cells.

The county also sees substantial financial savings from the program.

“Every day they’re not in there, the county’s saving 70 bucks,” Robinson said. “You take a hundred guys, if I get five, six hundred work days out of them, that’s a lot of money.”

Robinson estimates he saves the county $30,000 to $50,000 a year by keeping bodies out of the jail.

Recently, the sheriff’s office purchased a used county van to transport work release participants to work sites. Painted black with sheriff-logoed stickers on the sides, the bus is the pride of the sheriff’s deputies, who all took turns taking it for a ride on its first day in service, Robinson said.

At each worksite he visits, Robinson invites letters to the Sheriff’s Office if there are any concerns about the workers or their behavior. He’s never gotten a negative letter, and, in fact, has received several letters lauding the workers.

Occasionally, he gets a letter from the workers themselves, thanking him for the opportunity to be a part of the program.

At each worksite, whether the crew is trimming branches, painting an outdoor center, or shovelling through mounds of snow, Robinson works alongside his crew, in the thick of the work and leading by example. They ought to be able to keep up with an old man, he teases them, serving as both supervisor and workmate as he puts his back into his job.

“I get along with ’em,” he said. “I treat them like I treat anyone else. We’re the same. So we’re going to do the work.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.