The Marshall County Council members approved an additional appropriation Monday morning to pay the rest of the year’s salary for the jail program director by a vote of 5-1-1.
At the last council meeting in April, Marshall County Sheriff Matt Hassel explained that grant for that full-time position is apparently no longer available by the Attorney General’s Office. There are 10 classes offered through the JCAP program under the direction of Director Joshua Pitts which include substance abuse, Moral Recognition Therapy, skills building, GED classes, art classes, logistics certification, decision points, Narcotics Anonymous, parenting, and individual counseling. Sheriff Hassel believes that these programs need to stay in place under the direction of the jail program director to help with inmate rehabilitation and recidivism.
It was noted that Marshall County Community Corrections offers programs and the Bowen Center has helped with classes a couple of times a week, but the jail program director is able to be on the premises full time to assist inmates at the jail.
The appropriation was in the amount of a little over $37,000 including benefits that will come out of the LIT Special Purpose fund.
Councilman Heath Thornton opposed the vote.
Thornton commented, “I guess I would just have to say that as one of our presenters mentioned our policy has always been if the grant funding goes away the position goes away. I guess I think we need to stick to that principle. Everybody knows when they get hired with that grant that that is the position.”
Councilwoman Mandy Campbell abstained from the vote as she was not present during the meeting in April where she stated more of a discussion was held on the matter.
While the discussion was that a grant-funded position would go away if the funding would go away, Councilman Jon VanVactor said that has not always been the case.
“We had police officers hired on a three year grant and at the end of the period of the three years we picked them up and brought them into the budget,” stated VanVactor. “Now, in my estimation, what that is is that’s an easy way for the council to say ‘you know what? We’re not going to look at this programm and we’re not going to look and see if there’s a need for it, and we’re not going to try and find funding for it.’ It’s just easy to say ‘if you lose your funding you lose your position.’ I think what we need to look at, first of all, is this a need? Is this an essential function in the jail? Does it provide a service to those inmates in the jail and, ultimately, to our community?”
VanVactor went to say that it does have an effect on the people in the jail, and the position could be comfortably budgeted in the 2022 jail budget. Sheriff Hassel said that could be revisited during budget hearings in July and this fall.
A presentation from the Bowen Center, Marshall County Community Corrections and information on the jail program director will be presented during the Maximum Impact program Sunday, May 16 at noon ET on MAX 98.3 FM.
