Community Corrections: New hires part of increased funding

Through the windfall of a federal welfare program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Dubois County Community Corrections has been able to hire three full-time employees on a temporary basis.

Dubois County Community Corrections received $330,000 in unexpected funding through the program. But corrections is unsure whether the grant will be available in the future.

According to Community Corrections Director William Wells, it is a grant that expires on June 30, 2016. “It may reappear. It may not,” he said. “In the meantime, we will just try to use it as wisely and as productively as we can.”

Through the TANF grant funds, the community corrections board approved hiring a case manager, a program facilitator, and a grant administrator.

The remaining funds from the temporary grant went into programs designed to assist with mental health services, an anger management program for corrections participants, substance abuse programs, and new evidence-based tools for case managers.

In addition to the surprise grant, community corrections was able to receive additional funding for a full-time case manager from the Department of Corrections. The board approved hiring a full-time case manager as required by the additional funding.

House Bill 1006 allocated additional funding to reduce the state’s recidivism rate.

Through the increased funding allocated through Indiana House Bill 1006, the center received an additional $55,800 this year. According to Wells, he expects the additional money will remain as part of the annual grant the center receives annually from the Department of Corrections.

House Bill 1006 created about $5 million in additional funding for community corrections programs as well as probation departments, problem-solving courts, and prosecutor diversion programs.

It was a highly competitive process for the funding this year, but with the HB 1006 funding increasing to $20 million in 2016, the corrections center hopes to increase the amount received next year. If that amount increases, Wells would like to hire two new corrections officers to alleviate the workload on the center’s current officers.

There are 10 full-time corrections officers and three part-time now. Two of the officers act as field officers but are called back into corrections to fill in for any officers that are out for sickness or vacation. They then get behind on their field operations. Wells said the two additional officers would alleviate that and allow for a smoother work environment in the facility.

Finally, in the vein of additional funding and grants, community corrections received a $16,845.33 award after a recent facility review by the department of corrections. This is a bonus based on the review results.

Wells also informed the board that he had contracted services with Atlas Collections to go after delinquent accounts. Wells inherited over $600,000 in unpaid corrections fees that have accumulated since 2006 when he took over as the facility director in October.

Wells has forwarded about 200 accounts totaling about $250,000 in outstanding fees to the agency so far. The agency will keep 35 percent of any collections. “I do not expect to see any significant amount of money, but whatever we get, is money we didn’t have otherwise,” Wells said.

Wells informed the board he is working on practices to prevent such delinquencies from occurring in the future. He said case managers will now discuss the participants’ unpaid fees as they are out-processing from the center. If they have unpaid fees, they will be required to enter into a payment plan.

With the extra funding and grants, Wells says the community corrections budget is stable at the moment.