Inmates Donate $250 Toward Bombing Relief

Digging into their $1-a-day earnings, 94 prisoners at the Imperial County Jail donated $250 to bombing relief efforts in Oklahoma City.

“Anybody that watched that drama from the beginning . . . I just got a lump in my throat,” said inmate Steve Dagnino, who initiated the drive. “We felt we could do without the coffee and candy bars for a week.”

The prisoners, many of them illegal immigrants, presented a check Friday to Karen Kelley, director of the American Red Cross in the Imperial Valley for forwarding to the Oklahoma City chapter.

The donation comes from the $1-a-day earnings of inmate workers and the inmate trust accounts, which include cash they had when they were arrested, and any money from friends and relatives. The money is used to buy food, toiletries and other items from the jail canteen.

“We felt kind of sad,” said immigration prisoner Jesse Anaya. “Steve brought it up in the dorm and we got together with all the illegal aliens and explained it wasn’t mandatory, it had to come from the heart.”