Court services and community corrections are the first line of defense against putting people in prison, says Tex Gough, the director of Cowley County Community Corrections the past eight years.
“We revoke (their probation). You have to put them somewhere,” he says. “That cost money – something like $21,000 a year – and they predict that without reducing revocations, a new prison costing millions will have to be built, and then millions (spent) to maintain it.”
That price tag is part of what’s driving the new push to work with offenders to try and get them to modify their behavior by sending them to agencies that will help them, and provide them with positive feedback.
“This is the way of the future – or so says DOC (the Kansas Department of Corrections),” Gough says. “Bed space! Is the public safer? Good damn question.”
Gough is going to let others answer that question. He is calling it quits and retiring Friday with over 32 years or public service behind him, 14 of those years with the local community corrections program.
There are five other employees besides the director; three intensive supervision officers, one substance abuse counselor, one administrative assistant and two part-time surveillance officers. They currently have 173 active clients.
More than 60 percent of crimes are drug and alcohol related, according to Gough. The state-wide revocation rate is 32.5 percent. CCCC revoked 24.4 percent in fiscal year 2006.
“So we revoke less than other agencies across the state,” he said.
State parole officials have reduced their revocation rate without extra funding by working more with offenders to try to get them to modify their behaviors. “Experts say it can work, but I say you have to provide more financial support to decrease caseloads,” Gough said.
A study by the American Probation and Parole Administration (APPA) released about a year ago states the maximum caseload an intensive supervision officer should carry should be 20.
“Needless to say, three officers into 173 does not come out to 20 a piece,” Gough says. “That is why I have been forced to carry a caseload the entire time I’ve been director.”
State corrections officials don’t want to acknowledge the APPA study about the maximum caseloads and remain focused on working with offenders to try to modify their behaviors, Gough says.
“I have my doubts about it working as well as they says it has,” he says. “I talk to parole officers and they say that they try to send an offender back to prison and are told ‘no’, and to keep working with them. Eventually, their parole expires and DOC has a successful completion.
” Is he better than before? Is he not going to re-offend? Many say no,” Gough says. “I am going to reserve my opinion for a while and see what happens. It could backfire when eventually all of these people that were released will re-offend and be back in the system in droves. It could catch up with them.”
The state communications budget has been flat for the past eight years. Statistics showed a decrease in recidivism up until about 2001 and then it started to increase, and has steadily risen for the past six years. That correlates with the flat budget in Gough’s opinion.
“The shear number of offenders has grown as well as the severity of the crime,” he says. “And, the legislature wanted us to manage them with the same money.”
The local department’s budget for FY08 is nearly $300,000 – an increase over the FY07 budget – but Gough says it’s still not enough. “The allocation (from DOC) is a percentage of the award the state legislature gives all of the state agencies,” he says.
“That percentage is based on the average daily population of clients over a 21-month time period,” according to Gough. “We have been growing so fast that by the time the allocation comes out, we are already serving 30 to 40 more clients than what money we were given. That is minimum of one officer’s caseload. So, at this rate, we can never catch up.”
County commissioners have shown their support the last two years by putting money into the general fund to help if the department runs short. Gough is expecting a $13,661 grant for substance abuse counselor salaries and applied for another $113,000 grant to hire two officers and purchase another car.
Somebody else will have to deal with the case load, the budget, the recidivism. Gough is walking away from it all. Nearly 30 people have applied for his position. The process of selecting a new director had not yet begun earlier this week.
