CHEYENNE — On a cool late-summer Monday morning at Lakeview Cemetery, a small group of men work to trim grass and clean up the area surrounding headstones.

Unlike standard groundskeepers, these men have volunteered their time through the Laramie County jail’s inmate labor program.

“Being inmate labor, your time goes by a little bit faster,” worker Joshua Nichols said. “We get to do community service projects, and it gets us out of the facility and gives us a chance to get thinking about reintegrating back into the community.”

Nichols is a veteran who has lived in Cheyenne since 2012. After passing certain requirements, including a mental health evaluation, he was able to volunteer his time working as an inmate laborer.

“It feels good, but it’s a double-edged sword at the same time,” Nichols said. “I shouldn’t have made the decisions that I did. However, this kind of spotlights the fact that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It doesn’t have to be a repeat situation.”

Certain projects hit closer to home than others for some of the inmates. Nichols noted that, as a veteran, seeing the headstones of his fellow service members demanded a certain level of respect from him as a worker.

“I know we’re inmates at the end of the day, but at the same time, it gets us thinking in a positive direction,” Nichols said. “Especially being able to come out and do stuff like this.”

Over the past few weeks, the crew has cleaned up headstones at Lakeview Cemetery and removed or covered up graffiti near the Greater Cheyenne Greenway in the area of the Sun Valley subdivision, a task that Ward 3 City Councilwoman Michelle Aldrich said has been incredibly helpful.

“It’s a good use of resources to utilize them as much as we can, and especially for temporary labor,” Aldrich said.

Once inmates volunteer, they’re approved for work based on their behavior, criminal history, and mental and medical health status.

“We’re making sure inmates are not escape risks,” Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak said. “They’re not a danger to the public, they’re in good health, that sort of thing.”

For the inmate volunteers, not only do they get outside the downtown facility for a day or two, if relevant, Kozak will also offer to write letters to local judges, testifying to how hard they work.

Project organizers are responsible for lunch, which is typically $50 to $100, by Aldrich’s estimate, and must supply equipment needed for the task.

Parkway Pizza is a notable favorite lunch option, Aldrich added.

“It’s extremely affordable,” Aldrich said. “And it really gives them an opportunity to get out and do something useful in the community.”

The only cost to the jail is a $3.50 fee per inmate, per day for an active ankle monitor while they work.

The project benefits the community, Kozak said, and if the inmates aren’t satisfied with their lunch or feel they’re being taken advantage of, they can choose not to work for a specific group again.

“They’re all hard workers; I haven’t had one in the program yet that was not,” Kozak said. “In fact, the inmates kind of put pressure on each other to work hard because they don’t want the program to go away.”

Voluntary inmate labor isn’t common nationwide. Of the 1.2 million people incarcerated in state and federal prisons, nearly 800,000 are prison laborers, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. But most programs aren’t voluntary, invoking the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allows for involuntary servitude as a punishment for crime.

Labor is volunteer-based across the board at the Laramie County jail, inmate labor director TJ Wiltanger said, including in-jail tasks like cleaning.

“Everybody starts in jail,” Wiltanger said. “And then, as they prove that they are capable and behaving well, then they’re selected as an outside work inmate.”

Wiltanger has seen the benefits of this work firsthand, seeing how it connects inmates to the community and helps inmates develop work routines.

“It gets them in the routine of working again, so that whenever they get released, they have more of a routine than just sitting in their cells all day,” Wiltanger said.

© 2025 Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne, Wyo.). Visit www.wyomingnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.