ALTERNATIVE SENTENCING Inmate overload tests CCA options

One judge has doubled the amount of people placed on house arrest.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The caseloads are rising at a halfway facility in the city, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, its chief executive officer said .
In fact, alternative sentencing programs continue to be effective tools and a cost savings to Mahoning County's criminal justice system, said Dr. Richard J. Billak of Community Corrections Association on Market Street.
CCA houses inmates completing the last few months of their sentence or those put on probation and provides a variety of services to the criminal justice system, including electronically monitored home confinement, community service monitoring and day-reporting classes.
Day reporting is a class curriculum that defendants are required to attend four days a week for eight weeks, Billak said. They are given instruction in topics such as chemical dependency, anger management, domestic violence and job placement.
Billak said the CCA has seen a greater use of its facilities and alternative programs because the county jail is under a federal court order to keep the inmate population at 296.
Hundreds of inmates have been furloughed from the jail because of an early-release mechanism approved by common pleas court judges.
That has forced area judges to make greater use of alternative sentencing programs like electronic monitoring and day reporting, Billak said, adding that the nonprofit company's numbers in several categories have shown significant increases through April.
For example, Judge Elizabeth Kobly of Youngstown Municipal Court put 25 defendants on house arrest last year. As of the end of April, she had put 58 on house arrest.
Judge Scott Hunter of the county's area court in Canfield had placed 41 people on house arrest through the end of April compared with 25 people in all of last year.
Billak said despite caseload increases, his staff has done a "great job of cross training" to make sure personnel are monitoring all CCA programs.
The 2005 goal for the CCA's felony diversion program was a caseload of 116, but it has taken in 176 as of the end of April.
The CCA's day-reporting program for defendants convicted of felonies also has exceeded its yearly goal. The 2005 objective was 46, but the courts already have placed 70 people on day-reporting status.
Billak said 92 percent of the felons put through CCA have successfully completed court-ordered sanctions such as community service and house arrest, and 86 percent of those charged with misdemeanor crimes have completed court sanctions.
Cost comparison
Billak said alternative sentencing, like electronic monitoring for house arrest, in which a defendant wears an ankle bracelet, saves the county money because it costs about $65 a day to keep a defendant in jail, but only about $5 a day for house arrest.
Also, the person on house arrest is paying for his own food and any medical expenses, he added.
"Our hope is that the judges would continue using these sanctions to reduce costs," Billak said. "It is taking a little time for some judges to come around, but we believe there is middle ground [concerning sentencing] and there are cost savings."
At last week's corrections planning board meeting, Billak said sanctions, such as day reporting, does work "if you get the right kind of sanctions for the right kind of people."
Planning board members added that they would like to see alternative sentencing remain a viable option when the county's finances stabilize. Alternative sentencing, the board said, has evolved to help reduce recidivism and it does save money.