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http://www.detnews.com/2004/metro/0410/28/d01-318330.htm

Jails redirect inmates

Programs get nonviolent into therapy, free up space

By Tony Manolatos / The Detroit News

Counties get creative

Faced with a lack of jail beds and shrinking budgets, law enforcement
officials in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb are stepping outside the box
to build jail diversion programs. Those include:

Wayne: Sentences some prostitutes addicted to drugs to residential
centers where they're treated for their addictions.

Oakland: Uses drug and alcohol screens and strict court supervision
to keep people busted for retail fraud and other nonviolent crimes
out of jail.

Macomb: Operating a one-year pilot program to move inmates suffering
from mental illnesses to residential treatment centers and outpatient
programs.

Source: Detroit News research

MOUNT CLEMENS - For years, frustrations mounted for mental health
case workers at the Macomb County Jail as they watched people who
didn't belong there land in already overcrowded cellblocks.

Now, thanks to a $291,000 grant from the state, case workers are
able to move inmates suffering from mental illness out of jail cells
and into residential treatment centers and outpatient programs.

Macomb's Mental Health Jail Reduction Program, a one-year pilot
project that's saving the county money and freeing up jail space,
is one of a handful of new jail diversion programs rolled out in
the tri-county area within the past year.

Faced with a lack of jail space and shrinking budgets, law
enforcement officials in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb are creating
programs that take nonviolent offenders out of their cells and into
programs.

The goal, which some say risks public safety, is to free up jail
space for violent offenders and provide treatment for criminals
suffering from drug and alcohol addictions and mental illnesses.

Since receiving the grant money eight weeks ago from the Michigan
Department of Corrections, Macomb's jail has moved 10 mentally ill
inmates from jail to treatment programs. A reduction of 10 inmates
would save $56,000 over three months.

Over the next 10 months, 90 additional inmates are expected to be
placed in similar programs."We need to figure out how to be smart on
crime," said Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel. "It's no longer good
enough to just be tough on crime. We can't just warehouse people in
jails. There's not enough room."

All three counties use work-release programs, electronic monitoring
and drug courts in lieu of jail time, but jails are still at or near
capacity.

Judges in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb have recently been forced to
release inmates early to alleviate overcrowding, freeing people
doing time for drunken driving, drug offenses and other nonviolent
crimes.

Wayne releases about a dozen nonviolent inmates a day, before their
sentences are fully served. In Oakland, 40 inmates were released in
July before their sentences were served. Twice within the last year,
Macomb was forced to release dozens of inmates.

Residents are caught in the middle of the dispute. Some don't want
to pay more taxes to build bigger jails and others are uncomfortable
with the jails releasing inmates early.

"If you start releasing people, you start losing control," said Jim
Rogers, 35, a county road commission employee from Macomb Township.
"Nobody wants to see taxes raised, but you don't want to lose
control, either. They should at least consider building a larger jail."

In Wayne, prostitutes with drug addictions who are busted more than
once now are sentenced to residential centers where they're treated
for their addictions. They're also learning vocational and
educational skills. In the past, they sat in jail cells for 90 days
or more.

"Continuing to put these girls through the criminal justice system
just wasn't working," said Wayne County Undersheriff Lawrence Meyer,
noting that Sheriff Warren Evans started the Fresh Start Program
about a year ago with the help of several local agencies.

The program, funded with grant money, doesn't cost the county a
dime. Without the grants, the program probably would be scrapped,
Meyer said. The sheriff's office in Wayne is facing a $6 million to
$7 million budget shortfall this year.

"Unless we win the lottery, the county general fund isn't going to
bear the burden of new programs," Meyer said. "We need more creative
ideas and more aggressive grant requests."

About a year ago, Oakland County started offering drunken drivers
with three or more convictions intensive treatment options on top of
90-day jail sentences. The new concept replaces jail sentences that
lasted up to 11 months with little to no treatment.

"What we've noticed with multiple drunk driving convictions is
incarceration alone is not enough. They need the treatment," said
Deborah Carley, chief deputy prosecutor in Oakland County.

Oakland officials also use drug and alcohol screens and strict court
supervision to keep people busted for retail fraud and other
nonviolent crimes out of jail.

A Teen Court, run by youths and supervised by judges, keeps juveniles
out of trouble - only 5 percent land back in court for other offenses
- which means they're less likely to end up in jail in the future,
Carley said.

"We're always looking for something else because we never have an
abundance of jail beds," Carley said. "The treatment programs are
time- and labor-intensive, but they generally keep people out of jail."

In Macomb, jail officials have worked for months at lowering the
inmate population. When they sent their grant request to the state
for the mentally ill reduction program, they didn't expect the state
would return a check for nearly $300,000.

"We asked for about half of that, so we were real pleased," said jail
administrator Michelle Sanborn.

The program's mission "is to keep them out of jail and to get them to
a point within six months where they are self-sufficient," said Linda
Verville, who oversees the program as assistant director of Macomb
County Community Corrections. "Getting them hooked up with jobs and
housing is the hardest part."

About 195 of Macomb's 1,400 inmates receive psychiatric medications,
Verville said. Only about 25 percent of those have a job, and 54
percent have no family support.

At the state level, a task force Gov. Jennifer Granholm formed three
months ago to study jail and prison overcrowding is expected to make
its recommendations to the governor by January.

"We're getting our hands around this grease pig, finally," said
Terrence Jungel, a member of the task force and the executive
director of the Michigan Sheriffs' Association. "There is no silver
bullet to the problem we're facing ... We need to decide who the
worst of the worst are and how we're going to use our finite
resources."

Locally, part of the solution rests with the jails, Hackel said.
County jails in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb have fewer beds than the
state average of 1.84 beds per 1,000 residents.

During the first quarter of next year, Hackel expects to present a
$50 million to $60 million jail expansion plan to the Macomb County
Board of Commissioners for approval.

"I'm hoping we can get federal funding for part of it ... but taxes
being raised, I don't see that happening," Hackel said, noting that
diversion programs are useful to a point. "The question is how many
more diversion programs will judges consider without risking public
safety?"

You can reach Tony Manolatos at (313) 222-2069 or tmanolatos@detnews.com.