ANGOLA — Northeast Indiana Community Corrections received approval for five full-time employees to staff its new work release division from the Steuben County Council on Tuesday.
The agency, formerly Steuben County Community Corrections, will be offering work release in late October. The funding for the employees, $120,000, is from a grant from the Indiana Department of Corrections.
Work release is being resumed in Steuben County in anticipation of more low-level felons being ordered to be incarcerated locally with the change in state law that impacts sentencing.
“It’s obviously going to be the trend,” said Councilwoman Linda Hansen. “They’re (DOC) going to be shifting more prisoners to the local level.”
Work release is being housed in the old Steuben County Jail in a portion that was added to the historic structure during the 1970s. It will have a maximum capacity of 36 people, both men and women, said Brett Hays, community corrections director.
“The break even point,” Hays said, “is about 25 participants.”
Julie Troyer of the sheriff’s department administrative staff, said the key to the success of work release is having jobs available for the participants. Having a job is a requirement of being able to participate in work release.
Troyer said this might be difficult in the current job market and she would rather see available jobs going to law abiding citizens rather than convicts.
Troyer said it is anticipated that the jail’s population will grow by 80 people next year once the new sentencing guidelines are fully implemented.
“We expect to see a large influx of prisoners,” Troyer said.
This is going to put a strain on jail staff, she added.
“We are already struggling with our staff,” Troyer said.
Steuben County has invested about $230,000 in preparing the old jail for work release and other functions of community corrections. Once work release is up and running, the agency will have a full-time staff of 16 people.
Hays said he tried to fill the positions with part-time people but was not successful, so he went back to the DOC and received approval to fund full-time employees.
While the county will not have to pay for the staff, it will have the exposure of insurance liability through its self-insurance program.