On June 12 a Polk County, Georgia, sheriff’s deputy started going down. And this wasn’t a good time for that. You see, he was overseeing six prison inmates who were out on work detail sprucing up a local cemetery in preparation for Father’s Day.

But go down he did. He suffers from a rare brain malformation, and the Georgia heat that day was too much for him. As he lay unconscious on the grass, the inmates had access to his gun, his cellphone, and his van. They could have made a run for it.

Instead, this story has a happy ending.

You see, he was their deputy. They spent five days a week, seven hours a day with him out on work detail. When they saw him go down, they knew what they had to do.

Doing the right thing

Anything could have been done. Anything could have happened. But all the right things happened, and that’s what makes that whole day just so much better.

That is one of the inmates speaking. And another inmate:

When that happened, in my opinion, it wasn’t about who was in jail and who wasn’t. It was about, you know, a man was going down and we had to help him.

What they did was to rush to his side, turn him over to make sure he was okay, and then remove his gun belt and bulletproof vest in case he needed CPR when the paramedics arrived. They fished his phone out of his pocked and called 911. Here is the local news coverage on the event:

And you can read all about it here: “Sheriff to cut sentences of inmates who helped fallen deputy.”

Good deeds have good consequences

For these nonviolent offenders who did the right thing, their good deed had good consequences.

Of course, the most important consequence was that thanks to their quick action, the officer recovered and is doing fine.

But their good deed also led to good consequences for the six inmates. Yes, the pizza and dessert party thrown for them was great! But even better, their sentences will be shortened in recognition of what they did—and didn’t—do on that day. Polk County Sheriff Johnny Moats said:

Any time we have a trustee or inmate crew that goes beyond normal duties, we cut them some extra time off.

It all goes to show that no matter who we are and no matter what our situation may be, we can always choose to do a good deed instead of a bad one. And when we do, things will go better in so many ways!

For further reading: