Pubdate: Tue, 13 Mar 2007
Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT)
Copyright: 2007 The Billings Gazette
Contact:  http://www.billingsgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/515
Author:  Ed Kemmick
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

FORUM LOOKS AT JAIL ALTERNATIVES

The timing was good Monday for the Rimrock Foundation's annual 
educational forum, which dealt with alternatives to incarcerating criminals.

Just three weeks ago, the Pew Charitable Trusts issued a study saying 
Montana would see the fastest prison population growth in the country 
by 2011 unless it changes its prisoner-release and sentencing practices.

'Astonishing Statistic'

Bill Lamdin, president of the Rimrock Foundation's Board of 
Directors, said that "astonishing statistic" and the explosion in the 
number of criminal offenders who have drug problems point to the need 
to do something besides build more prisons.

The forum at the Mansfield Health Education Center featured three 
people speaking about programs that divert offenders from jails and prisons.

Diverting Offenders

Eric Bryson, director of Gallatin County Court Services in Bozeman, 
talked about how to bring representatives of the entire criminal 
justice system together to begin diverting offenders away from incarceration.

Roland Mena, director of the Montana Board of Crime Control, 
presented the highlights of a federal study of jail crowding in the 
state. Mona Sumner, chief operating officer of the Rimrock 
Foundation, talked about the success of the foundation's latest 
diversion program, which involves treatment for jail inmates at the 
Silver Leaf Center near North Park.

Bryson said Gallatin County Court Services is the only county-funded 
program of its type in Montana. It encompasses pretrial services, 
community corrections, treatment court, electronic monitoring, a 
pre-release program and a misdemeanor probation officer, all working 
together to decrease the jail population in Gallatin County.

The department was more than a high-minded experiment, Bryson said - 
it was a direct response to county voters' refusal to approve funding 
for a new jail. Bryson said the department has been making strides 
since it was created in 2004, but his talk Monday was more about how 
other counties can start similar programs, not specifically about the 
success of the Gallatin County program.

His main piece of advice was to "get all the players around the 
table," or, in the case of Gallatin County, on the Criminal Justice 
Coordinating Council. Every facet of the criminal justice system has 
to have representatives on the council, he said, and the group has to 
have to authority to get things done.

He said the council has been successful because it stays involved in 
relatively small problems within the system, calling on the expertise 
of its members to fine-tune and streamline operations.

More than anything, Bryson said, the council focuses on helping 
people with drug problems get supervision, treatment and mental 
health assistance. "Diversion" is more than finding an alternative to 
jail or prison in a specific instance, he said. It means getting 
people the help they need to change their core beliefs and actions so 
they stop going through the criminal justice system.

Sumner made a similar point, saying the recidivism rate in Montana is 
upwards of 70 percent. By contrast, she said, Rimrock's jail-based 
treatment program, funded by a federal grant through the Board of 
Crime Control, has been showing success in keeping its clients 
employed and off drugs.

Of the 27 people who have been served by the program, which began 
last August, 72 percent were unemployed when they entered it and all 
of them had drug problems - in 45 percent of the cases, a 
methamphetamine problem, Sumner said.

Of those who have completed the program, 60 percent were employed 
after six months and 72 percent had not experienced a relapse into 
drug use after six months, which Sumner said was "an enormously high 
number for this very high-need population."

The program is for nonviolent, drug-addicted offenders who receive a 
minimum of three months of treatment while incarcerated and go into 
intensive outpatient programs offered by the drug court after being 
released from jail.

As part of the program, the inmates go to the Silver Leaf Center five 
days a week for therapy and educational programs. Most of them 
require 12 to 18 months of additional treatment after they are 
released from jail, Sumner said, and "treatment lasts as long as the 
individual needs it to."

At the state level, Mena said, the Board of Crime Control will be 
working to follow the recommendations of the National Institute of 
Corrections study of jail overcrowding. The institute, which is part 
of the U.S. Department of Justice, conducted phone interviews before 
coming to Montana last summer and visiting four jails around the state.

The Yellowstone County jail had 420 inmates on the day of the visit, 
though its designed capacity is 286, Mena said. In broader terms, he 
said, the team found that many jail inmates are being held on a 
pre-trial basis for nonviolent misdemeanors, and there are few 
controls in place to track which inmates really deserve to be jailed.

The federal team ended up presenting 10 recommendations, including 
the creation of a statewide offender-management committee that would 
have oversight of efforts to put the other recommendations into practice.

Another recommendation is to collect and analyze offender profile 
information statewide to come up with the base data needed to figure 
out what factors are leading to overcrowding. As it is now, Mena 
said, at least 11 different data bases are being used by jails around 
the state.

Other recommendations are to conduct an analysis of all the treatment 
resources in the state; develop a flow chart showing how offenders 
move through the criminal justice system; conduct cross-system 
training among the counties; develop a comprehensive strategic plan; 
and conduct pilot tests of new strategies.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman