Background
This ordinance authorizes a supplemental appropriation to the Franklin County Municipal Court in support of the Court’s Work Release Program.
The Court’s Work Release Program provides an alternative response to mandatory jail sentences and it has been an invaluable sentencing option. The program allows judges to consider this residential, community resource as a response to probation violations, while allowing the individual to maintain his/her employment by paying toward their court-ordered restitution, fines, costs and child support.
Recently, the state has significantly reduced in the diversion funding in the state budget, which resulted in the elimination of a portion of grant funding.
The per diem rate at the Work Release Program is $66.00 compared to the $80.00 per diem for incarceration within the jail. This is a significant cost savings, and each Work Release participant is required to pay a subsistence of 25% of their gross income while in the program to help offset the cost and extend the length of the funding.
Lastly, the Work Release Program allows the County’s most restrictive and costly resource, its county jail beds, to be reserved for higher risk and higher level defendants.
Fiscal Impact: Funding is available within the Public Safety Initiatives subfund.
Emergency action is requested in order to immediately provide the Franklin County Municipal Court with resources in support of the Work Release Program to avoid any disruption in service provision.
Title
To authorize a supplemental appropriation within the Public Safety Initiatives subfund to the Franklin County Municipal Court in support of the Court’s Work Release Program, and to declare an emergency. ($25,000.00)
Body
WHEREAS, the Court’s Work Release Program provides an alternative response to mandatory jail sentences and it has been an invaluable sentencing option; and
WHEREAS, the per diem rate at the Work Release Program is $66.00, compared to the $80.00 per diem f...
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