March 20, 2002 Community corrections plan to ensure public safety, reduce jail population » Watch the press conference (Real Video file) King County Executive Ron Sims today proposed a series of measures intended to reduce the county’s jail population by providing treatment and other alternatives to incarceration. Together, these measures represent pragmatic first steps toward creating a system that can more appropriately and more cost effectively serve lower level offenders within the criminal justice system. Sims’ proposal includes creation of a new Community Corrections Division within the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention (DAJD) that will oversee a number of structured programs to address the needs of the offenders and their sentences. This includes assessment, treatment readiness, life skills and linkages to community programs. “Our goal is to effectively expand criminal justice capacity by using limited secure beds as effectively as possible to enhance public safety and change offender behavior,” said Sims. “We will work with other criminal justice, health and human service agencies to provide the appropriate programming. We hope to increase offender accountability and reduce recidivism through several prudent measures that offer minimal risk.” While many of these efforts are already offered throughout King County, the reorganization of DAJD will centralize these functions and focus the effort in the corrections agency through conservative measures to effectively manage the alternatives to incarceration, saving overall jail beds. The effort will begin immediately on a pilot basis, and, if successful in reducing jail populations and reducing recidivism, may be included in the proposed 2003 budget. “These are prudent first steps to provide alternatives that better serve a specific group of offenders who may not need to be in jail but require supervision, and, if they are successful could be vital new efforts to reduce our overall jail population in the long run,” said Sims. King County Councilmember Larry Gossett, who chairs the Council’s Law, Safety and Justice Committee said, “This Community Corrections Initiative, on the part of Executive Sims, is vitally important. It provides creative alternatives to incarceration which begin to allow for responsible counseling, treatment and work experiences for low-risk offenders.” Programs that are currently being developed include creation of: A Day Reporting Center that provides a structured program environment for eligible low risk offenders who violate a condition of their community supervision. The Center will also offer on-site services that will help them comply with conditions imposed by the court through monitored activities, such as drug and alcohol, or mental health assessment and education; referrals to community programs, such as substance abuse treatment and parenting, and anger management classes. The initial size of this program is set at 25 with expansion possible depending on the success of the pilot program. The West Wing program will be housed at the Corrections Facility for minimum security offenders. The pilot program will offer and expand access to services that meet inmate needs, such as drug and alcohol education, parenting, domestic violence counseling and will plan other services to aid the inmates’ transition from custody to community based programs. This is based on King County’s model used at the North Rehabilitation Facility (NRF). Work Crew, an alternative to confinement through community service, is already a practice of King County. Under this proposal, it will be moderately expanded to additional low risk offenders, such as those sentenced for non-alcohol related offenses such as driving while license suspended or no valid operators’ license. Crews currently operate out of the secure detention facilities, NRF, work education release and two crews that operate in conjunction with the District Court. Judges participating in this program sentence the offenders to the work crew where they perform supervised intensive manual labor. In turn, this demonstrates visible restitution to the community through the work provided, such as garbage clean up, replanting wetlands, removing blackberry bushes. Updated: March 20, 2002 Executive's home | Executive's news Executive's e-mail King County | Executive | News | Services | Comments | Search Links to external sites do not constitute endorsements by King County. By visiting this and other King County web pages, you expressly agree to be bound by terms and conditions of the site. The details.