By Jim Hook
Public Opinion
Jail is still home for a few inmates who have done their time.
Eleven inmates have served their minimum sentence in Franklin County Jail, but remain in jail because they don’t have a place to live.
“The judge has sentenced these people to a minimum and maximum, to be released after the minimum,” county jail inmate Johnny F. Clark recently wrote to Pubic Opinion. “Yet, there are people still here up to five months past their minimum. (It’s) a waste of taxpayers’ money. Has probation more power than the judge?”
Before an inmate can be released, the county Probation Department requires the inmate to have a home plan - a place where they will be staying for at least 90 days after leaving jail. The home plan is part of a pre-release plan that may include drug and alcohol treatment, domestic abuse counseling and attending General Educational Development classes, according to Chief Probation Officer Daniel Hoover.
“When an offender is placed on parole, one of the tantamount conditions is that we know where they are living,” Hoover said.
Probation officers check on the offender to help him or her abide by a pre-release plan.
“You don’t want to release someone back into a drug-infested environment,” Franklin County Jail Warden John Wetzel said. “That’s not going to be conducive to their recovery. You put them in the wrong neighborhood, they are more likely to screw up.”
At any time during the past 18 months, about 11 inmates were waiting for home plans before being released from jail, Wetzel said.
“It looks like 2 percent are having problems with the home plan,” Hoover said.
About 500 to 600 people are paroled from county jail annually, he said.
Wetzel said it costs the county about $65 to $70 a day to jail someone.
Costs can add up, both for inmates needing a home plan and for offenders who fail to make it on the outside and are sentenced to more time in jail.
“We need to stabilize people so they don’t end up right back in the system,” said Dr. Kim Eaton, director of the Day Reporting Center. “It’s like a quagmire; every time they come back, it’s harder for them to get out.”
The Day Reporting Center is an alternative to incarceration for many people found guilty of minor offenses. The center’s programs emphasize changing an offender’s behavior and decision making. Offenders report daily to the center instead of staying in jail.
Hoover and Wetzel credit the Day Reporting Center with reducing the number of pre-release inmates needing a place to stay.
“If they are jailed a short time, they are less likely to lose their home plan,” Eaton said. “Finding an apartment in jail is not an easy feat. Some counties will send someone out, if they have a park bench and the county knows where the park bench is. Franklin County isn’t going to send someone out homeless. We want to make sure that someone is OK.”
“These people had a place to stay before coming here,” inmate Clark wrote. “A problem came up while being here, a family dispute or not being able to pay their rent, yet the probation department kept them here for not having a home plan. Maybe if they were out they could find a place to stay and have a job.”
An inmate on work release can put money aside for an apartment, Wetzel said.
Some inmates, especially those with mental health problems, have burned bridges with family and friends. Probation staff try to rebuild those bridges in difficult cases.
Knowing the offender is coming to class and being tested for substance abuse, a family is willing sometimes to take the offender back in the home, according to Eaton.
Home plans have been required for years, according to corrections officials. The state Department of Corrections also requires home plans for inmates to be released from state prison.
A stay in the homeless shelter is too short to qualify for the home plan.
“Ninety days is a guideline, and we like to stick with that,” Hoover said. “If they get out for 60 days with a friend and makes plans for an apartment after that, we’re willing to be flexible.”
“If they reach their max date, they are released,” Wetzel said. “We are not legally able to detain them past that date.”
Copyright 2009 Public Opinion