AL County Offers New Work Release Program
A work release program that would allow some defendants to go to jobs during the day and bunk at the county jail at night could become part of Morgan County Community Corrections. Parents delinquent in child support would be a target group. During a meeting Tuesday, Circuit Judge Glenn Thompson presented the idea to the Community Corrections/Court Services Commission. Report fro the Decatur Daily.
Thompson, who presides over drug court, a component of community corrections, proposed that work release become the program’s second phase.
“Right now, at sentencing we have probation, or the state Department of Corrections (prison) or community corrections with drug testing and supervision,” Thompson said of options. “I’d like to see us have a work release program that would allow defendants to work, and they would pay for their stay in the county jail.”
Thompson used as an example defendants in jail for non-payment of child support. He said they could work and pay child support. They would be part of the work force by day and inmates by night. Thirty-two inmates are in the county jail for failing to pay child support, according to a court official.
County Commission Chairman John Glasscock, who also chairs the corrections commission, expressed concern about the jail’s population.
Circuit Clerk John Pat Orr, a member of the commission, said eventually a work release program would lower the jail population because work release inmates would cycle out. Thompson said he realizes that housing would likely be an issue and funding is needed.
Community Corrections Director Kim Thurston said an official with the state Department of Corrections informed her that money is available for local work-release programs. In a work-release program, 25 percent of an inmate’s pay would go to the state and pay for his stay at the county jail.
Commission member Circuit Judge Steve Haddock said work release would be a useful option as long as community corrections would not have the task of finding jobs for inmates.
Thompson said defendants would be required to have jobs before entering work release.
Thurston said work release is a part of Madison County Community Corrections and it works well. “I think it’s a natural progression to the agency,” she said. “We have a captive audience.”
Inmates in jail for violent or serious crimes would not be eligible for work release.
Thompson said he learned at a national conference that drugs and alcohol addiction are the culprits behind overcrowded prisons and he agreed. “If we didn’t have people addicted to drugs and alcohol, we wouldn’t have that many people in jail,” Thompson said. Also, he said state prisons are so overpopulated that inmates are being released early.
“Everybody we send through the front door, they send out the back door,” said Thompson. “We got notice one guy that was sent to prison for 20 years got out in one year.”
Others agreed with Thompson that community corrections has proven to be a viable alternative to sentencing in Morgan and as it grows fewer inmates would go to prison. Thompson, District Judge Shelly Waters and Thurston will be a committee to seek information about other work release programs in the state and report their findings.
Also, during Tuesday’s meeting the commission approved Thurston’s fiscal 2011 budget, which is $447,000.
The County Commission started the program under a federal court order in 2006 with $50,000. Today, under Thurston’s leadership, the program is self-sustaining on fees collected from participants and state funding. The program had no more than 40 participants when it started four years ago. It now has 1,228.
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