Additional Funds To Keep Offenders Out Of Jail
Licking County Adult Court Services will receive $92,500 in additional state funding to keep Licking County offenders out of jail and prison. As reported in the Newark Advocate
Court services will receive a $60,000 boost to its $213,589 appropriation for prison diversion and a $32,500 increase to its $50,590 for jail diversion, chief probation officer Kelly Miller said. Current appropriations fund 4 1/2 positions.
Diversion includes community-based programs to rehabilitate and monitor lower-level felony offenders without incarcerating them, thus saving taxpayer money. Typical candidates are drug and alcohol cases or people who don’t pay child support, Miller said.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction sets goals that Licking County must meet to keep the funds, including reducing the number of jail days used by common pleas court offenders by 25 percent, Miller said.
Other targets include reducing the number of fourth- and fifth-degree drug felonies that are sentenced to prison by 50 individuals and sending no one to prison for failure to pay child support, Miller said. These targets will be assessed after two years to determine if the department met them, he added.
Taxpayers pay $75 per day to house a person in the Licking County Justice Center and about $69 per day to incarcerate a person in prison, Kelly said. Diversion reduces those strains on taxpayers.
Court services will use the money to fund a contracted coordinator for treatment in specialized docket court, a pilot Suboxone program and about 25 electronic monitors for pretrial and nonsupport cases, Miller said.
The coordinator would assess what rehabilitation is necessary for drug, alcohol and other specified offenses so addicts could find help instead of a jail term, Miller said.
The funds also will help launch a program that uses Suboxone, a medicine for treating opiate addiction, to reduce the influx of incarcerated prescription drug and heroin abusers, Miller said. The medicine also will allow them to be supervised outside jail, he added.
The electronic monitors also allow law enforcement to keep track of individuals charged or convicted with less-serious felonies, Miller said.
Since court services implemented 14 electronic monitors in January, Miller estimates the county has saved about $115,000 in jail costs.
“With the state budget being the way it is, I’m thrilled and honored the department of corrections has enough faith in the Licking County justice system to give us this money,” Miller said.
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