Marshall County Community Corrections has gotten the support of the county commissioners, as it goes about creating its fiscal year 2018 budget. The commissioners’ approval is a required step before Community Corrections is able to apply for grant funding from the state.
Director Ward Byers told the commissioners Monday they plan to apply for over $335,000, with $39,500 going to Marshall County’s jail treatment program. “What we’re going to be asking for with the state is an additional full-time case manager,” he explained. “That is the biggest addition to the grant budget, in and of itself.”
He added that he’s confident the county will receive its desired funding from the state. “The expectation of any of the monies drying up for Community Corrections is very low,” he said. “Now, the additional monies that came from House Bill 1006, that $20 million, that’s kind of up in the air, if the legislature will re-appropriate that much. But as far as base funding for Community Corrections programs through the Department of Corrections, no one seems to have any concern that that’s going to dry up anytime soon.”
Byers also said that the Community Corrections program saves taxpayers money, “So if you take a look at the number of people that we are currently supervising at the amount of money that it would cost the sheriff to house those individuals, not counting medical costs, it’s saving the county $3,640 a day or over the course of a year, $1.3 million it’s saving the county from not having these folks in the county jail on those Level 6 felonies that will no longer go to the state prison.”
The commissioners approved the letter of support for 2018 grant funding, unanimously.
