CHARLESTON – They scraped paint off buildings, replaced roofs, made cupboards, laid floors, cut brush, mowed cemeteries and performed an assortment of other jobs that likely would have been neglected for lack of cash.

More than 25,000 hours were donated in 2004 to local communities by Charleston Correctional Facility inmates and their supervisors through the facility’s restitution program.

“It’s a tremendous value to the town,” Dover-Foxcroft Town Manager Jack Clukey said Thursday. He estimated the value of the work inmates performed for the town in 2004 at $100,000. It included construction of a building to house universal waste at the transfer station, brush cutting on the town’s gravel roads, and renovations to the police station and Center Theater. “It allows the town to do many projects that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to do,” Clukey said.

Although the facility’s budget covers 75 inmates, there have been 93 to 95 adult inmates housed in Charleston, most of whom participate in the restitution program, according to Steve Berry, facility director.

The inmates not only have an opportunity to give something back to communities, they also learn a trade and take great pride in their work, Berry said Thursday. “It gives all prisoners a true sense of freedom and a return to the community,” he said. “It’s been very successful and we’ve had no major incidents.”

Those on the receiving end speak well of the program, according to Berry. “It’s the look in the eye, the handshake and the verbal thank-you that just really says it all,” he said. Most have been so appreciative that they’ve donated money for the purchase of new tools for inmates to use on work details.

“We still plan to have a strong restitution program going into 2005,” Berry said. Some nonprofit organizations and towns already have requested help in the new year. Because of state budget cutbacks, inmates must pitch in and do various jobs at the facility, including repair work, he said. In addition, the inmates save the state “millions” of dollars working for the Department of Transportation on road projects and bridge maintenance, and for land management services to the neighboring Bud Leavitt Wildlife Management area, Berry noted.

As for community projects, inmates this year finished the renovation of the Sangerville Historical Society Museum and replaced its roof, made repairs to the Piscataquis Regional YMCA, constructed a fence for the town of Stetson, built a ramp at the Willimantic Town Hall, painted the Sebec town office, applied siding to a Bradford church, painted the Brownville Fire Station, and mowed cemeteries in Charleston, among other jobs.

In Dover-Foxcroft alone, the inmates spent 468 hours completing projects, according to Berry.

“It’s just been of incredible value and it certainly is a program we strongly support,” Clukey said.