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DAVIS COUNTY — Men and women volunteer to clean over 10,000 articles of clothing per week in a place you might not want to touch the laundry — jail.
Hard time passes a little faster in this obscure room in the Davis County Jail.
“I like it. It’s a good job to have in here. Makes the day go by,” said inmate Jim Thorpe.
Thorpe has been on laundry detail for five weeks now.
“I’ve never seen so many boxers, bras and panties in my life,” Thorpe said.
Inmates working in the 24-hour laundry operation handle at least 1,500 to 1,700 articles of clothing a day, totaling easily 10,000 per week. The jail uses washing machines with an 80-pound capacity and dryers that can tumble 110 pounds of clothing at a time.
Jail laundry workers have motivation to work fast.
“It can smell pretty bad sometimes,” said Thorpe. “Especially depending on how long it sits. Usually we turn it around pretty quick.”
Laundry is important, and diverse, even for jail. The items are color-coded for security and access, and the clothes come in all sizes. The biggest size they carry is a 10 XL. And according to deputy Devin Solie, they’ve needed it.
“I have issued this one before, uh-huh,” said Solie.
One item of clothing — the jail-issued brown underwear — has a bit of a history.
“We used to have white, but we had issues with stains and getting them out all the time,” said Solie. “And so we went to a darker color. That way they’re not as prevalent.”
“I guess it’s better than white, because if it was white, then you would know it was there,” said Thorpe.
It’s just one of the quirks of jail life. And these guys hope time will go by faster by lending a helping hand.
Another key job conducted by inmates working in the jail laundry is to watch for contraband, though officials said the laundry room is not where those kinds of items show up.
As workers, inmates get credits off their sentence for working in the laundry. And having a job almost makes it all seem normal.
“You work, you get off. You go back to your house, your cell,” Thorpe said.
The shift is a little different from one on the outside — this one ends in a pat down. It’s a reminder that these household chores are happening far from home.
“Anything that normalizes your life a little bit makes it feel less like jail and more like you’re just going about your day helps your time go by,” said Thorpe.
It is true that the inmates get credit for the work they do, but if you ask them what their favorite part of the job is, they all said it was working with each other because it’s a time they joke and laugh. It’s a sign that they haven’t lost their sense of humor, even while serving hard time.
