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. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman