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Putnam gets grant for alternative sentencing program |
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Putnam gets grant for alternative sentencing program
By Charles Shumaker
Staff writer
WINFIELD - An alternative-sentencing program to help rehabilitate
nonviolent criminal offenders in Putnam County will launch early next
month, boosted by a $50,000 state grant.
Attorney General Darrell McGraw presented Putnam County officials with
officials with a check Tuesday morning. He will distribute similar
checks to seven other counties where similar programs are planned.
Caren Bills, Putnam County's chief probation officer, convinced county
leaders in recent months to consider the program. Similar programs are
underway in several counties and have been considered successful
because they reduce the cost of housing people in regional jails.
The money comes from the state's $10 million court settlement with drug
maker Purdue Pharma Inc. over advertising for the prescription drug
OxyContin.
The program was set up using a $127,000 state grant that was awarded months ago.
Brad Willis, the county's community corrections specialist, was one of
two staffers who went to Mercer County to visit a program operating
there.
He said people there served a minimum of three months in the program.
"I think the thing that stuck out in our minds was how long people have
to stay in it to be successful," he said.
Judges or magistrates will be able to choose the day reporting center
for people instead of other sentences. The alternative program will
provide substance-abuse counseling, community-service opportunities and
job training to offenders. Bills said those are services that inmates
don't always receive or benefit from while serving time in jail. |
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