County Council shows support for further JCAP funding
“What we’re really trying to do is create better community members so when they leave the jail they’re not going to keep coming back,” -Joshua Pitts, Director of Jail Programs
On Monday, the County Council showed its support for further funding of the Jail Chemical Addiction Program (JCAP). Sheriff Matt Hassel gave the council a brief history of the jail overcrowding issue and the steps that were taken to resolve it.
“Three years ago, we were faced with overcrowding and actually went past our capacity,” said the sheriff. One of the many solutions to address the overcrowding issue was JCAP. “One thing that I came up with, working with Ward Byers, was to try to get a grant with Community Corrections for jail programs and put in place a jail program director.”
After a few failed attempts at grants, the jail was able to receive a JCAP grant through the Indiana Attorney General’s office. In March, capacity numbers in the jail were lowered when the pandemic arrived in the county.
“But since we’ve gotten this program up and running, our numbers have not come back. We’ve been running in the 150’s, 160’s now for probably 12 months. Which is a good thing. I contribute a lot of that to this program (JCAP),” Hassel said.
Pitts stated that there are multiple classes that are offered to the inmates at the jail. Some of those classes
include Matrix/substance Abuse, individual counseling, MRT, HSE/ GED, art class, Decision Points, JCAP NA meeting, female parenting class, and inmate worker group substance abuse. Bowen Center, Heartland Artist Gallery, Grace College, Women’s Care
Center, Plymouth Adult Education, and Purdue Extension are just some of the organizations in the county that facilitate those classes.
“What we’re really trying to do is create better community members so when they leave the jail they’re not going to keep coming back,” said Pitts.
Hassel said that because of these programs, there has been a change in the inmates morale. Chief Jailor Beau Holcomb agreed with the sheriff.
“Allowing them incentives to promote good behavior is better for the staff, the security of the facility. Inmates have a lot of time. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. Having something for them to do to help them in the long run is good for our jail, it’s good for our staff, it’s good for the people that are in there. And lastly, I would say that we have 160 people in our facility. Some of them are drug dealers, some of them are alcoholics, some of them just make terrible decisions. The one thing that they all have in common is they’re all addicts,” said Holcomb. “As a corrections facility, we owe it to these people, we owe it to the community, to give them the help that they need. And I think Josh (Pitts) is that help.”
So far, Sheriff Hassel gave plenty of good news when it came to JCAP. However, he was also at the council meeting to deliver some bad news regarding the program. “In the Primary last year, curtis Hill was defeated by Todd Rokita. We have reached out last month to the office to see if they were going to continue to support and sponsor the JCAP grants and they said no.”
Because the funding from the grant ends at the start of July, Sheriff Hassel asked the council for their support for an additional appropriation to keep the program running. Hassel proposed to use funds from the LIT Fund for the position of Director of Jail Programs. He also proposed to use funds from the commissary Fund for programming costs. He also said that his department would write grants to help cover programming costs.
council Member Jim Masterson asked the sheriff if he believed that without the jail programs, the jail would become overcrowded once again.
“That would be my belief,” the sheriff said. “I think that the issue that we have a lot is recidivism. The individuals that are housed there don’t make good decisions. When they’re released, they don’t have good ground to stand on. Being able to just work with them, try to figure out a different way of thinking, a different way of living their lives, it can only help that recidivism,” said Holcomb.
council Member Heath Thornton asked about the inmate attendance. Hassel responded that there is an entire cell block of 40 inmates enrolled in the program.
Masterson asked, hypothetically, if the Marshall county community corrections wasn’t operational, how many more inmates would be housed at the jail.
“We have 136. The difference between the jail population and us today is 41 people. And that’s been the average for probably six to eight months. And we’re doing it with the same amount of staff that we’ve always had,” said Marshall county community corrections Director Ward Byers.
A motion to show support the JCAP program without the grant was made. It was unanimously approved.
The sheriff will prepare an additional appropriation to reflect these changes for a future meeting of the Marshall county council for approval.