Less inmates part of community corrections budget shortfall

J.P. Weisheit, director of Dubois County Community Corrections, told his board that the numbers at the corrections center were down about 20 inmates.

The declining numbers of inmates and participants, down to 201 individuals at the time of the meeting, is one ingredient in the department’s continued budget shortfall.

The department is funded through fees collected from the inmates that are in work release, however, Weisheit had stated that those fees weren’t being paid and he was having problems collecting. This decline led the Dubois County Council to approve a $44,242 injection to get the department through the end of the year to be used to cover employees’ pay.

During the twenty-minute public session after the hour and half executive session, the board made no decisions in regards to the department’s money issues and declined to speak about those amounts until a public session in the near future.

The board agreed the decline in inmates was evidence of the department’s success but the success of the program was working the employees out of their job.

—The board approved a motion to allow Weisheit to pay for utility bills, drug testing and other expenses with money from the commissary funds as long as the money was available in the fund.

—The board also approved changing the schedule of the meetings from once a quarter (three months) to bimonthly and moved the time to of the meeting to 4 p.m. Those meetings are held at the community corrections center, 257 Brucke Strasse.