Consultants: ‘Day-reporting center’ needed

Low-security inmates could live in dormitory, leave daily for jobs

Imagine a place – perhaps in downtown Lawrence or maybe at the Douglas County Jail east of town – where people in trouble with the law would be required to visit each day and check in.

They’d have to give updates on what they’re doing in life, whether they’re employed and if not, how their job search is going. They might have to take a drug test or attend mental-health treatment on site. If they’re having trouble finding work, the county could put them to work – organizing pamphlets for a nonprofit agency, maybe, or cleaning up a park.

This kind of setup, known as a “day-reporting center,” is a key piece that’s missing from Douglas County’s criminal-justice system, according to a group of consultants who visited town last week. The consultants with the National Institute of Corrections came to town to help the Douglas County sheriff’s office prevent future overcrowding at the jail and to keep inmates from coming back once they’re released.

The jail opened in 1999 but already is creeping close to its capacity of 190 inmates, depending on the day. Last year, the sheriff’s office had to spend nearly $47,000 to house inmates out of county.

What’s especially troubling to jail officials is that many of the same inmates show up again and again, haunted by mental-health and substance-abuse issues that never seem to get solved.

Inmates at the Douglas County jail participate in an art class taught by art therapist Kerry Niemann, at left. According to a group of consultants who visited Lawrence last week, a day-reporting center is a key piece that's missing from Douglas County's criminal-justice system.

“You’re not in real trouble yet, but the signs are there,” said Ted Nelson, a retired jail commander from Salem, Ore., who gave a presentation Thursday along with Kevin Warwick, of Chicopee, Mass.

The consultants’ visit, which involved two days’ worth of meetings and interviews, was provided free to the county through a federal program.

Paperwork, reporting

Overall, the team praised Douglas County’s efforts at the jail, saying it was progressive compared with other communities. Some of their ideas:

¢ Faster paperwork. Of the 149 inmates who were in the jail on a recent day, 27 had been sentenced but were waiting to be transported to prison. That portion of the population could be diminished by speeding up the paperwork required to send inmates to the Department of Corrections after they’re convicted in Douglas County.

¢ Day-reporting center. The county should build a day-reporting center attached to a dormitory area for low-security inmates who would be allowed to go to work during the day.

Ron Stegall, the county’s director of community corrections, said it would allow close supervision of offenders without keeping them in jail. Today, it’s almost unheard of for probation officers to have contact with offenders more than twice per week, he said.

County Administrator Craig Weinaug said a program would be costly but could pay off in the long run – by having fewer repeat offenders – and possibly in the short run by freeing up more beds in the jail.

“If you view the jail merely as a holding facility for the people that our community doesn’t want to look at, no, we don’t need to do that,” he said. “But if you view the jail as a facility to make them better so we can make them productive citizens, then absolutely we ought to be looking at those kinds of services.”

¢ Better data collection. The consultants tried to look at how many people were in jail for probation violations and couldn’t find the number using the jail’s computer system.

To be able to solve issues of re-offending, the jail needs to know who’s coming back again and again, they said. They said the jail needed new software and to create a “population management” job for someone to monitor the daily population.

¢ More mental-health services. They recommended that the county expand mental-health services for inmates. Mental illness is one of the main risk factors for reoffending, along with substance abuse.

“There is a gap in service for mental-health clients,” Nelson said. “That was a common theme.”

The consultants also recommended forming a committee to work on inmates’ transition back into the community and a “criminal justice coordinating council” involving leaders such as Sheriff Ken McGovern, Dist. Atty. Charles Branson, and local chiefs of police and judges.

“It’s up to us now to keep pushing this forward,” McGovern said.