Inside a Lee County special corrections program

Reporter: Annette Montgomery
Published: Updated:

More than 3,000 bags of trash, 19 interstate projects, nearly 100 citizen requests and over one hundred truckloads of trash—that’s the work done by nonviolent offenders in Lee County, who are doing their part to make our county more beautiful.

C4 stands for Carmine’s Corrections Clean-up Crew.

This team of Lee County inmates goes all over the county to places in need of a little sprucing up.

It not only teaches them life skills but also shows them that regardless of their past, they can have a positive impact on the future.

Jodi Trusty, owner of Sweet Floret Cakery, said, “I know that God uses all kinds of people, and these people, I believe, are straight from Heaven.”

Those words are typically not common words used to describe inmates, but these non-violent offenders aren’t doing the things inmates typically do.

Sheriff Carmine Marceno said, “These are the lower-level offenders. They made a mistake, a minor mistake, and they’re incarcerated, but now they get a chance to come out and be a productive member of society.”

“We had a lot of stuff to do on the outside that I was I didn’t even realize until we got in today, and so seeing them is everything, and I think that we should understand that God uses everyone in all walks of life, and he used them today, and I couldn’t think of anyone better to come out here and help me,” Trusty said.

WINK News reporter Annalise Iraola walked alongside the C4 team and sheriff before the start of the new year as they cleaned impassable areas on Matlacha, Fort Myers Beach and Bonita Springs.

The community emails recommendations, and LCSO sends the C4 crew out.

“This is not, ‘Hey, get out here and do something,'” Marceno said. “This is a chance to have a second chance. This is a chance to come out and be productive and make people see that you want to do great things, and actually, one of the inmates said, or two said that they have relatives that live here, so they’re happy that they’re cleaning up the place where they have relatives that live here.”

This is proof that although you may not always make the best choices, it doesn’t mean you won’t get another chance.

“I was praying last night, and I’m like, God, I do not know what to do, but like seeing this, it’s just like a touch from Heaven, for sure,” Trusty said.

The crew is out five days a week. They also assist the Florida Department of Transportation in construction zones and with ongoing projects.

If there is an area in need of clean-up, email LCSO at carminescleanupcrew@sheriffleefl.org.

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