D.C. graffiti scheme to use former inmates

WASHINGTON, July 19 (UPI) -- A new clean-up program being instituted by the District of Columbia's Department of Public Works is planning on using former inmates to eliminate area graffiti.

The D.C. City Council has earmarked nearly $2 million in city funds to pay the former prisoners to remove graffiti from sites around the nation's capital, The Washington Times said Thursday.

City Council Member Jim Graham said the program, that will be funded through the fiscal budget for 2008, will give the former inmates a chance at a new life.

"These ex-offenders have no employment and these jobs hire people where they are," Graham told the Times.

The program has yet to begin hiring ex-inmates to take part in the cleanup effort.

During the first five months of 2007, 1,444 reports of graffiti were made throughout Washington.

The prevalence of the crime prompted D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty to propose emergency legislation that significantly reduced delays in local graffiti removal, the Times reported.