photo by: Journal-World Graphic

The Douglas County Commission meets in the historic courtroom on the second floor of the county courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St.

Faith-based activist group Justice Matters has presented the Douglas County Commission with an offer to provide $30,000 toward the cost of a study into reducing the incarceration rate at the county jail.

Brent Hoffman, of Justice Matters, told commissioners at their meeting Wednesday that Justice Matters had spoken with an anonymous donor who was willing to provide $30,000 for a comprehensive study of the county’s criminal justice system. Hoffman said the donor’s support was contingent on the study being conducted by one of three research organizations: The Justice Management Institute, Vera Institute of Justice or Justice System Partners.

Hoffman estimated that the donation would pay for anywhere from a quarter to a third of the study’s cost and that the study would take six to eight months to complete.

The three research organizations the donor recommends have experience with comprehensive studies of criminal justice systems that explore ways to reduce jail populations, Hoffman said.

“They are the best in the country at doing exactly what we seek to accomplish in Douglas County,” he said. “… Our donor wants to invest their funding in the best.”

Justice Matters campaigned against Proposition 1, which county voters defeated in May. Had the ballot question been approved, it would have funded a $44 million expansion of the county jail through a half-cent sales tax. Hoffman reminded commissioners that Justice Matters’ opposition was based, in part, on the County Commission not hiring an independent consultant to study how all aspects of the criminal justice system — from police officers on the street to district court judges — influence jail populations. Multiple speakers at a listening session the commissioners held after Proposition 1’s defeat also demanded a comprehensive study, he said.

Douglas County Commission Chair Nancy Thellman said the offer was something commissioners would have to digest. Commissioner Mike Gaughan said the Douglas County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council would have to sign on to any study because it had representatives from the institutions to be studied, such as the Lawrence Police Department, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, the District Court, Lawrence Municipal Court and the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office. He said the CJCC also would have to consider how the proposed study would fit with an ongoing National Association of Counties study of how to further reduce the county jail’s population of those with mental illness and a study that is to get underway soon that will explore why people of color are incarcerated in the county jail at a rate higher than their percentage of the county’s population.

In other business, commissioners approved final spending levels for this year’s capital improvement projects. Sarah Plinsky, assistant county administrator, said commissioners already had approved spending $1.22 million on facility-related projects and $5.82 million on road and bridge projects. However, those costs were based on estimates made before the projects began. Commissioners approved figures to reflect the actual costs of individual projects now that those costs are known, she said.

Plinsky admitted the county was “playing catchup” with the late approval of project spending levels. Going forward, she said, her goal is to have commissioners approve project level spending at the same time that it approves the capital improvement plan each year.