By Joe Lambe
Wednesday,February 17, 2010
For decades, counties and states locked up more criminals for more time, but that is changing as money gets tight and research supports a lighter touch.
Law-and-order bastion Johnson County, for instance, has much costly new jail space but is looking at other solutions. A 26-member committee made up of criminal justice and community leaders — including the sheriff and prosecutor — is working on jail alternatives for adults, juveniles and the mentally ill.
The year-old Criminal Justice Advisory Council also studies how to help people succeed on probation or parole.
Its approach got attention recently when two national groups named Johnson County their first U.S. demonstration site for studying better ways to handle mental illness in the justice system.
The designation, by the Council of State Governments Justice Center and the U.S. Department of Justice, came partly because the county already had the broad-based study underway, said Michael Thompson, director of the state justice center.
“The leadership they’re bringing together is really extraordinary,” he said, and national staff will work with county experts to find solutions good for public safety, taxpayers and the mentally ill.
The advisory group is starting to take action on other fronts. Members recently got state bills introduced to clearly allow work release for minor offenders and early “good-time” release for county prisoners.
Johnson County has had good results for several years with a program that allows repeat drunken drivers to leave jail and work during the day, officials said, but it is unclear whether state law allows it for other crimes.
Rep. Pat Colloton, a Leawood Republican on the county council, introduced the work release bill to clearly allow it for minor offenders.
Studies support it, she said. “You have lower recidivism rates, lower violation of other terms of parole and better chances they will be reintegrated into society.”
As for early release, officials said, that is available for state prisoners and should be for those at the county level. Also, U.S. Department of Justice studies have found that sentence length is not related to recidivism rates.
Colloton said she does not want to pass the early release bill this year but instead get input statewide on how to do it and how much good time to grant. The state allows up to 20 percent off for minor crimes.
Betsy Gillespie, director of the county corrections department, said of lighter approaches: “We’re going to target them to those with moderate risks and those who are mentally ill, and those are often the same.”
Advisory council member Annabeth Surbaugh, chair of the board of county commissioners, said “lock-’em-up” politics are not affordable and may not be the best way.
Public safety costs — including the sheriff, prosecutor and corrections — have increased to more than half of the $270.7 million general fund budget, she said.
“If we can provide the same amount of safety for the community, have a better outcome for society and a better outcome for the person involved,” she said, “that’s a win, win, win.”
The group is still studying juvenile crime and alternatives to detention. National studies, including one in December, have found that low-level juvenile offenders are more likely to commit other crimes if put in expensive juvenile detention.
At a recent fact-gathering meeting, the council heard testimony from experts on juvenile drug use.
Barbara Burks, director of substance abuse services at county mental health, said 75 percent of about 500 children in their treatment programs are there through the criminal justice system.
Alcohol and marijuana are still the two main drugs that get county children in trouble, she said, with prescription drug abuse coming after that.
The county had an increase in use of opiates like heroin last year that resulted in overdoses and deaths, she said, but “we’ve seen that trail off again.”
Youths are still abusing prescription pain pills with oxycodone in them, she said. That can be a problem in standard random drug tests, she said, because the synthetic opiate does not show up in them.
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