Over the next six months, crews of minimum-security prisoners will be cleaning up… Over the next six months, crews of minimum-security prisoners will be cleaning up Pennsylvania.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, together with PennDOT, plans to have prisoners from all 25 of the state’s prisons doing litter pickup, light sweeping and minor bridge cleaning along the 40,500 miles of state-owned highways.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Rather than these minor offenders lifting in the yard or breaking big rocks into smaller rocks, having them do community service in such a visible manner that benefits so many people is an excellent way for them to quite literally pay off a debt to society.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ With minimal security prisons fueling the crews, it’s not as if Hannibal Lecter is out there running loose. The offenders who would be eligible for the program would be mostly repeat DUI-offenders and those who had committed minor felonies. The program will begin in sparsely populated areas until citizens get used to seeing the orange-uniformed crews out on the road.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Keeping the option to only minimum-security offenders also precludes the possibility of escape. Simple arithmetic tells someone serving a few years in a facility, where they have the option of getting out in the air occasionally, that busting out will result in a much stiffer penalty, with many more years of much harder incarceration. And it’s not as if they won’t be supervised.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ None of the labor that the prisoners do will supplant union jobs. This program will allow PennDOT workers to attend to more important things, but won’t put them out of work.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Serving the community in this way means that prisoners won’t just be sponging off the state, getting three meals and a roof over their heads as a reward for breaking the law. This should help assuage complaints from some critics of the state prison system.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ With no money to spare, state citizens are probably suffering from low morale. Seeing clean streets, at minimal extra cost, can only make people feel better. Times are bad — there’s no reason not to do something cosmetic for improvement, especially one we don’t have to pay much for.

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Released prisoners who participated in this voluntary program could be better equipped to re-enter society than those who didn’t. They’ll be likely to take pride in the area they cleaned. And, as anyone who’s ever had cigarette-butt detail will testify to, they’ll be much less likely to litter themselves.