Inmates not cause for community corrections budget shortfall
Dubois County Community Corrections’ budget issues are not due to lack of payments by the inmates, according to Dubois County Superior Court Judge Mark McConnell.
McConnell presides over the Dubois County Community Corrections Board. On Monday, he addressed the county commissioners about the department’s budget shortfalls. Shortfalls that prompted county officials to allocate $44,000 in October to pay employee wages to the end of the year.
Originally blamed on inmates not paying their dues to take part in the program, McConnell stated that after examining the issue in detail, the board had determined that was not the only problem. According to McConnell, many of the inmates were paying higher amounts than actually required by their agreements and that of those that weren’t paying, garnishments decreased the amount the county could collect.
He also explained that the Dubois County Security Center and Community Corrections inmate numbers were down. This lack of recidivism, though good for the community and testament to the program’s effectiveness, was negatively affecting the correction center’s income.
The lower amount of inmates directly affects the department’s budget which was designed to operate on Indiana Department of Correction (DOC) grants and the inmate fees. The DOC grants have been frozen at about $400,000 — about 38 percent of the departments operating budget — per year and administrators are dealing with increased operating expenses.
He cited employee insurance costs as a major factor in the rising cost to operate and asked the county to assume responsibility for paying those benefits. McConnell asked the commissioners to for $210, 447 to pay for the department’s employees’ benefits for the 2013-14 fiscal year which ends June 30. Without the influx from the county, corrections would garner a net loss of $132,000.
Administrators have cut one employee position at the facility and reduced as many other expenses as they can. “We’re down to bare bones,” J.P. Weisheit, community corrections director, told the commissioners. “We just can’t get it any lower.”
In addition to cuts, Weisheit completed a grant application for $175,000 through the Indiana Department of Corrections but has yet to hear anything back on the application’s status.
McConnell pointed out to the commissioners that as the county faces the rising cost of healthcare and employee wages, they simply raise taxes nominally to pay for those increases. “We have a set number of individuals that we have to draw from,” McConnell said.
After the initial $3.5 million the county invested to construct the building with the promise the facility would be self-sufficient, some county policy makers are taking issue with having to fund the program.
He also reminded the commissioners of the amount of money corrections saves the county. The county doesn’t cover medical expenses for inmates in corrections but is responsible for all their needs in the security center. If corrections reduced numbers and sent inmates back to jail, the county would spend more money on those inmates than the cost to add to the budget for the corrections center.
McConnell quoted this would cost the county $1.75 to $3 million more per year compared to the hundreds of thousands it would cost the county to pay corrections employee benefits.
The commissioners stated they would take the request under consideration but Commissioner Larry Vollmer stated he recognized the benefits for the inmates and the county provided through the facility and its employees.
