August 9, 2002                                                                                     Contact: Michael Winder
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                              (605) 773-3478

(Pierre) - Governor Bill Janklow has deployed state prison inmates to assist with clean-up efforts in the northern Black Hills following a storm Thursday.

One hundred six inmates from the Custer Trusty Unit and 50 inmates from the Yankton Trusty Unit will help clean-up debris from the heavy rains that caused flash flooding in Deadwood.

This is the ninth time this year that Janklow has sent inmate crews to assist South Dakotan's in emergency situations. Inmates now have been used in twenty-four Disaster Response Team efforts in the past eight years. Inmates have worked more than 72-thousand hours on those projects.

Inmate crews have also worked more than 17-thousand hours as certified firefighters on twenty-one wildfires and forest fires in the state during the past year.

For more information on the various work performed by inmates, visit our website at: http://www.state.sd.us/corrections/CSWorkProjects.htm.

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