Articles & News

September 17, 2008

Michigan pilot aims to cut jail crowds

Muskegon County's multilayered "jail diversion program" -- aimed at screening offenders to determine who might be eligible for alternative sentencing and who might benefit from substance-abuse treatment -- is about to be launched full-scale.

If everything goes according to plan, county officials will achieve several important goals -- identify the most effective way to deal with individual inmates and maximize their ability to rejoin the community and avoid a return to jail.

Officials hope all of that eventually will reduce the population of the overcrowded jail, and slow the steady flow of early releases that are forced by overcrowding.

County commissioners this month voted to accept a $335,381 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to hire a jail screening and assessment staff.

The staff will consist of three new full-time employees, as well as two existing employees from the county's community corrections department.

Muskegon County Sheriff Dean Roesler said the employees will screen offenders as they enter the county jail to determine several factors: the risk they might pose if they were released; their ability to post bond; their potential to succeed in an alternative sentencing program outside of jail; and their need for counseling or substance-abuse treatment.

Candidates for the three new positions are being interviewed, and the staff is expected to be on the job Oct. 1, said Roesler.

The screening staff soon will be joined by a new jail population coordinator, whose responsibilities will be similar to the screening staff, but geared toward the existing jail population.

The jail coordinator position was created in the summer, and Roesler hoped to have someone on the job in July. But the chosen candidate declined the position, and other applicants are being reviewed. Roesler said he hopes to have the position filled by mid-October.

Both the screening staff and jail coordinator will provide information to the courts so judges can make more informed decisions about sentencing and early releases. They also will compile inmate statistics that will prove useful to the courts, the sheriff's department and the county board of commissioners, Roesler said.

Meanwhile, Muskegon County was chosen as one of four communities in the nation to participate in a special "jail re-entry initiative," Roesler said. The program will give the county free access to a special group of New York-based consultants, who will teach local officials how to effectively help released inmates succeed in the community and avoid a return to jail.

At a minimum, county officials think their initiative will help guarantee that inmates who are released early for any reason are those least likely to threaten the community.

"I think this will have an impact, but will it stop overcrowding? Probably not," Roesler said.

"But if there's an opportunity to divert somebody or pursue an alternative to jail, we want to take advantage of that. If we do it the right way, we'll be more effective at dealing with everybody."