A newly approved yet controversial prisoner work-release program near Covington, about a football field away from the city’s most crime-riddle neighborhood, has many city leaders fuming.

They’ve rallied against the project, signed resolutions of objections, called its zoning change inconsistent and a waste of valuable land space. Some even wonder, why here?

But now, the city and its residents must accept the inevitable and buy in to the project slated for construction early next year. If not, community relations will strain, prisoners won’t find jobs and the project could falter, said criminologist Peter Scharf, who has studied prisoner work-release programs for more than 10 years. “Community response may be really important if this thing works out or not,” Scharf, a professor at Tulane University’s School of Public Health, said. “You have to have that community buy in to really be successful.”

Either way, the facility is already green-lighted. The single-story, 9,200-square-foot structure, expected to be opened mid to late next year after six months of construction, will be large enough at maximum capacity to house 270 non-violent prisoners, all male. Chosen through a rigorous process by the state Department of Corrections, each inmate accepted will be a state prisoner already housed at the parish jail, adjacent to and south of the facility on the western end of Champagne Street.

To qualify, inmates must have exhibited good behavior in jail and have 30 months or less left on their sentences.

All will be overseen by a 20-person staff, watched over with cameras and housed by fences, said Jeff Schoen, the attorney for the private facility to be operated by Northshore Work Force LLC.

Inmates will also be driven to and from work and checked for weapons or drugs each time they re-enter the facility, and they will be required to put a portion of their paycheck, typically $30 a day, to fund room and board. Although Schoen declined to discuss financial logistics, Sheriff Jack Strain said similar facilities offset the remaining costs with stipends of $20 a day per inmate from the DOC.

In the end, work release programs shave the cost to house inmates by half, saving taxpayers millions, he said.

“It’s brilliant,” Strain said. “It defers all the cost to the defendant.”

And while the facility isn’t fancy, it’s practical to house inmates. A community center houses a living room, and each inmate shares a room.

“This is not a maximum security prison like you and I think when we see movies with inmates running around workout yards,” Schoen said. “This is a place for non-violent offenders who want to work” and move on.

In fact, only 5 percent to 10 percent of all work-release prisoners on average flee from their jobs or escape and commit other crimes, Scharf said.

In Slidell, where the Sheriff’s Office operates a prisoner work-release facility, only one inmate has escaped from the program in the past three years, Capt. George Bonnett said.

“These guys are already low risk,” Scharf said. “The chances of these guys committing another serious act are slim.”

Still, housing nearly 300 convicts nearby an area known for its drug and crime activity is fuel for a highly explosive cocktail, Covington Mayor Candace Watkins said.

In the past couple months alone, that area known as the “West 30s” — bordered by North Columbia Street to the north, West 28th Street to the south, North Jackson Street to the east and the jail to the west — housed two accused and arrested high-level drug dealers, including “Covington’s Most Wanted.”

Police also responded to attempted murder at a nightclub. It’s by far the Covington Police Department’s most troublesome area, Capt. Jack West said.

Now the facility, “a population of felons,” will be built near an area the city wants to redevelop and revitalize, Watkins said.

And although Watkins is “a true believer in rehabilitation … I’m skeptical,” she said.

Despite her pleas and that of others, the St. Tammany Parish Council overturned an Oct. 6 permit and zoning change denial in favor of the project operated by Jimmy Laurent of Lacombe. Council members who voted favorably said such a facility near a jail is the most logical fit.

Strain is also comfortable with a private business taking over what decades ago was a government-only endeavor. For years now the statewide trend has shifted from government-operated programs to private company takeovers, he said.

Most sheriffs are elected to “put people in jail and keep them there,” Strain said. “It’s not our job to rehabilitate, but here we are doing it.”

Strain said the movement is so popular because it takes the burden of managing money and inmates away. He’s even considering selling his Slidell-based prisoner work-release facility, among the first to open in Louisiana, to Northshore Work Force “if it proves to be successful.”

For now, he has no doubt it will. Per state DOC requirements, sheriffs must approve any private work-release programs in their parish. Strain immediately stamped his approval, he said.

“There is just such a cry for these facilities, a demand for it from the business community over here (in west St. Tammany,)” he said. “We’re constantly fielding calls from businesses who want to hire out prisoners.”