AG 1999 01 19 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Rowan-Cabarrus Community College 1531 Trinity Church Road Concord, N.C. 28025 788-3197 TARGETING AND PROGRAM SELECTION Several factors influenced the board's decision regarding which community corrections program to implement. A pretrial release program was ruled out, because the jail has not experienced the serious crowding problems plaguing many counties. Members also felt strongly about not establishing additional bureaucracy, which influenced their decision against a Day Reporting Center. Several options were discussed, including a Criminal Justice Resource Center, which would offer the "one-stop shop" for services of a Day Reporting Center without the demand for staff to provide constant supervision of offenders. There was a strong feeling among board members that drugs and alcohol were major contributing factors to crime in Cabarrus County, and statistical data supported their belief. For example, of the 1,000 probation entries in 1997, 143 were for non-trafficking drug convictions, and 277 were for Driving While Impaired. Probation officers pc[n:~ out that that drugs and alcohol are routinely involved in many other crimes for which people are placed on probation. Of the 250 prison entries from Cabarrus County in 1997, 117 were specifically drug related (not counting other crimes where drugs and alcohol played a role). Ihough only nine of the 223 probation revocations in 1997 were directly tied to substance abuse, probation officers again reported that many other violations probably involved drugs and alcohol. Because of its strong interest in using available grant money to provide services to offenders rather than in adding bureaucracy, and because substance abuse is clearly a major factor in the criminal behavior of offenders, the board voted to contract for substance abuse treatment. The Advisory Board also decided to concentrate on implementation of the z~bstance abuse treatment program during 1999-2000 instead of attempting to start several programs at once. Members agreed that by the end of the first year they would have a better idea of how much money it would take to provide treatment for all Intermediate offenders who were in need of the service and could then determine whether or not to allocate some funds for other things, such as vocational training, etc. Of the 1,000 probation entries in Cabarrus County in 1997, 200 were Intermediate cases and therefore eligible for the Criminal Justice Partnership program. Criminal justice professionals estimated that at least 50% of'those were in need of some level of substance abuse services. Board members agreed that it is impossible to be specific, without further information, regarding the level of treatment that would be needed for these individuals, so numerical objectives related to the number of offenders they expected to serve in IOPT or ROPT would be "best guess" estimates. They also recognized that it would take awhile for the numbers of participants to build, so they agreed to include