The Associated Press

CHARLESTOWN, Ind. — The final decision on a plan to beef up a volunteer firefighting department with inmates from a minimum-security prison will be left up to local residents, the state's top prison official said.

The Charlestown Volunteer Fire Department suspended the program after residents complained, but the Department of Correction planned to allow it to resume after a brief review.

DOC Commissioner J. David Donahue said Thursday that he planned to give the program the green light, and would let the fire chief and residents decide whether to continue the firefighter training.

"We really do welcome the partnership and I support the chief and the Charlestown community," he said.
Donahue said the program was a natural extension of the service jobs that inmates from the Henryville Correctional Facility were already doing in the community.

"It really did make a very good use of the available work force and it provided a very transferrable work skill," he said.

The fire department trained eight inmates from the Henryville Correctional Facility to increase the number of firefighters available during the afternoons, when many work, Fire Chief Lee Slaughter said.

But some residents and volunteers weren't comfortable with the program and the possibility of prisoners entering private homes, he said.

The inmates had helped maintain the department's firehouses, equipment and grounds since early last year, Slaughter said.

Fire Department President Charlie Moon said the department was short-staffed during the afternoons, but he voiced concerns about the program at a meeting last week.

Only four to six firefighters were available to fight afternoon fires in an area with some 15,000 residents, Slaughter said.

Slaughter said the inmates were part of a team of 14 firefighters that successfully fought a blaze at a storage facility several weeks ago.