VIRGINIA BEACH — Inmates in orange jumpsuits will no longer mow grass in the city’s medians, but they will start picking up litter soon.

The Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office recently ditched its landscaping program, which was losing money. Instead, Parks & Recreation has hired private contractors to do the work.

The Sheriff’s Office Inmate Workforce program allows low-risk offenders — with deputy supervision — to cut grass and perform other maintenance services for the city. Inmates are unpaid but can earn time off their sentences and receive additional food and privileges.

Over the last several years, the cost to supervise inmates while they knock down weeds has eclipsed the revenue generated from the contract with Parks & Recreation, according to a city audit conducted last spring. The cost for salaries and benefits to staff the program topped $1 million annually for each of the three years reviewed.

Audit results show that from fiscal year 2021 to 2023, expenses grew 34%, while revenue only increased by 10%. The revenue came from Parks & Recreation, which paid the sheriff’s office to do the work.

“In all three years reviewed, expenses for wages and benefits far exceeded gross revenues,” the audit document said. “This, by itself, has caused the program to continually operate at a loss.”

The landscaping contract generated $781,000 in revenue in fiscal year 2023, but the program had a loss of $942,503. That year, $1.4 million was spent on deputy salaries and benefits. The audit didn’t include how much the deputies earned or how many hours they spent monitoring. Operating supplies and equipment combined cost more than $50,000.

“It’s just continued to trend up because it is labor intensive,” City Auditor Lyndon Remias said in an interview Monday. “It should be, at the minimum, breaking even.”

The city auditor’s office recommended the Sheriff’s Office conduct a cost-benefit analysis to determine if the program was worth continuing, and consider ways to lower expenses and reduce staff or replace higher paid employees with less compensated ones. But the Sheriff’s Office opted not to renew the grass-cutting program this year. The former contract ran out at the end of 2024.

Instead, Sheriff Rocky Holcomb said he’s launching a new litter cleanup program that will require less equipment and supplies. Deputies will still supervise, but Holcomb said some of the work could take less time depending on the size of the job.

“We’re finding better ways to use the inmate labor,” Holcomb said. “It’s more bang for the buck.”

Holcomb will share the new initiative with the City Council during a Sheriff’s Office budget briefing Tuesday.

Remias said Parks & Recreation has issued new contracts with outside vendors to take over the areas that the Sheriff’s Office mowed last year. Multiple contracts are covering the services that the Sheriff’s Office performed, said Frank Fentress, the city’s park and landscape services administrator. The contract amounts were not readily available.

Other inmate workforce tasks, including painting pump houses and cutting bushes, are continuing, Holcomb said.

“You’ll still see inmates out in the community,” he said.