The Region - News from Jan. 6, 1985

Los Angeles County jail prisoners will be used by the California Department of Transportation to clean up highways as a way of saving up to $1 million in the $17-million state highway cleanup budget. Starting Feb. 1, a volunteer crew of up to 60 men and women will pull weeds and clean up trash 40 hours a week. It will be the largest inmate program attempted in the state, a Caltrans spokesman said, although a similar project operated in Sacramento last year. The prisoners in the program must be non-violent offenders willing to work full time without pay in return for five days a month off their sentences.