Only half the grant, or $619,175, could be spent on housing inmates, and the rest had to be spent on alternatives to incarceration, rehabilitation and other programs.
This week, the Butler County commissioners signed a memorandum of understanding with the courts and sheriff to receive the county’s share of new funding that is included in Gov. Mike DeWine’s biennium budget.
Common Pleas Court Administrator Wayne Gilkison said the governor’s budget provides for $2.4 million over two years.
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Earlier this year, officials suspected the mandate might become unfunded. Commissioner Don Dixon said DeWine came through and as long as the program is closely monitored it could be a positive for the county.
“The concept always made sense, but before Mike DeWine was governor it was the old throw a little bit of money in, get you committed and then walk away,” Dixon said. “That’s the way it was headed. It would have been the same old, same old. It would have been negative pressure on everyone. But Gov. DeWine put some money in and I think it has some potential.”
A new state law took effect last July that required Ohio’s 10 largest counties — Butler County is No. 7 — to stop sending non-violent felony offenders who commit low level crimes to prison, with the idea that lasting rehabilitation is more likely to occur at the local level than in state prisons.
Gilkison said as it has turned out, the impact hasn’t been as large as anticipated.
“It was forced on us but we don’t have all that many,” he said. “I think in April there were only 22 in the jail. It’s not that many people to begin with, because most of the time on F-5s we weren’t just sending them straight to prison to begin with. We were putting them on probation and giving them resources.”
One of the alternatives to jailing has been the electronic monitoring system. Gilkison said there are about 30 offenders on monitors now.
After a nearly year of the new normal, Major Mike Craft said the monitoring program is “one of the components of the TCAP program that is working.”
As for the program as a whole?
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“It’s a new concept, it’s a difficult concept. I’m not going to say it’s working, I will say we are trending toward making it work,” he said. “It’s getting better, with time you’re able to conform to it and make changes that are positive. I think the ankle bracelet program is a very good program.”
Katrina Wilson, coordinator for Butler-Warren Reentry Coalition, said programs like this are needed.
“Some believe introducing this type of program will permit violent offenders to ‘fall through the cracks’ and land back in our community. I don’t believe by implementing this program makes our communities less safe. In fact, I believe just the opposite,” Wilson said. “If we do not find a fix to the problem of over-committing low level, non-violent offenders, we will not have room in our jails and prisons for violent offenders who pose real threats to society.”
Facts and figures
$1.2 million: Previous grant to fund low-level felony offenders in the Butler County Jail instead of prison
$619,175: Amount of that grant that could be spent on housing inmates
$2.4 million: Amount, over two years, Butler County expects to receive from Gov. Mike DeWine's biennium budget
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