On the first day of summer, Jim King combs through brush on I-395 to help rehabilitate an old railroad bed.
Even if temperatures reach the top of the thermometer, there's no place he'd rather be.
"It's wonderful even on the hottest day, it's way better than sitting in the block," he said.
King is currently serving a sentence at the Penobscot County Jail.
As a member of the department's inmate work program, he logs long hours of manual labor.
"We've done a lot of stuff from jacking little camps, painting, laying flooring, a lot of brush cutting."
The program lets low risk offenders complete community service projects supervised while earning time off their sentence.
"It's a win win for both the county, inmates and the community," says Chief Deputy Troy Morton.
Inmates must go through a rigorous classification process in order to qualify.
"Classification looks at all things, what is your history, what is your education, what is the charge you are currently in there for," Morton explains.
Last year, the program saved local non-profits more than 125-thousand dollars.
But with the recent rise in crime, it's becoming difficult to fill spots.
"There's less and less inmates that qualify for these types of programs and we don't want to put any medium risk or high risk offenders out into the public."
Those who do qualify say with all the hard work comes pride.
And new set of skills that will help inmates like king as they prepare to re-enter society.
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