An attempt to collect money from people on probation has caused a decrease in state funds available for Community Corrections. Its board of directors is working to restore the state funds while continuing to collect the debts.
Robert Sullivan, director of Community Corrections, said that substantial decreases in state payments have resulted from a new policy of turning collections over to the court trustee’s office for probationers who have completed their probation requirements but still owe court costs, fines, and other fees related to their probation.
“We were closing out more cases than we were opening,” Sullivan said. “That’s what we’re supposed to be doing.”
While the trustee has brought in significant sums on the collections effort, the loss of probationers for the overall state headcount has cost the agency money. The Lyon County District Court docket includes monthly hearings for those who have not paid their debts.
“We’re probably the most aggressive in the state,” said District Court Judge Lee Fowler, who is a member of the Community Corrections board of directors. “Every three weeks (judges) do a trustee docket.”
Fowler said that the district judges give the former probationers serious talks about the need for them to repay their debts.
“This is an unintended consequence of having a trustee,” Sullivan said.
An earlier policy continued probation until the debts were paid and the cases were not turned over to the court trustee for collections. However, the collection success rate was not as good as it has become under the trustee system.
Sullivan has met with Kathleen Graves, director of Community Corrections for Kansas, to determine whether the two systems can be blended to the benefit of the local agency. Work will be done to develop a policy that incorporates a combination of both systems, without using probation officers.
“They should be doing supervision, not collections,” Fowler said.
The board heard that a counselor from the Mental Health Center of East Central Kansas is now working with Community Corrections part-time and will become full-time.
The county has been taken out of the payment process for electronic monitoring of adult defendants and probationers. Sentinel Offender Services has taken over the monitoring service and is handling payments directly.
The board was told that the Night Light Officer program is proving successful. Emporia Police Department Officer Bill Ross was hired as Night Light Officer and works an average of 8 hours a week for 48 weeks per year. Ross conducts home visits to juveniles on intensive supervision and to those on standard supervision who may have committed infractions that require additional attention, such as truancy. Ross also conducts bar checks to look for people who are on probation.
The board unanimously elected Susan Moran as its vice chairman.