KEEPING INMATES OUT OF THE PRISON SYSTEM

Schenectady -- Jail's chaplain touts alternative for nonviolent offenders

Donald Watts believes an alternative facility for jail inmates convicted as
first-time, nonviolent offenders will help stem the burgeoning state prison
population.

"Prisons are the No. 1 industry in the nation and they aren't very
effective,'' said Watts, Schenectady County Jail chaplain. The recidivism
rate is 76 percent, he said. "If a private company had that type of product
rejection rate, it wouldn't be in business very long.''

Watts believes there must be an effort to divert county jail inmates before
they get into the state prison system where many become trained criminals,
he said. "Once they're in prison tiers with hardened criminals, they hear
nothing but methods of beating the system -- all day and night long.''

Watts will discuss his proposal for an alternative facility in Schenectady
at a 7 p.m. meeting next Monday the Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia. He has
invited church, business and community leaders along with representatives
from the criminal justice system including police, judges, probation
officers and the like from Schenectady, Saratoga and Schoharie counties.

"The goal is to come up with a barless, lockless facility put together from
the best of the best similar programs in the country,'' Watts said.

He said the alternative facility would enable those selected for the
program to continue working at their jobs, supporting their families,
making restitution and paying for their own room and board instead of
becoming wards of the taxpayer.

Like others sentenced to jail, they would sleep in the facility and eat
there, but they would leave to go to work. Besides maintaining jobs, the
inmates would be required to work toward obtaining their high school
equivalency diploma, participate in drug/alcohol counseling and work in
community service projects.

Watts said he is patterning the program on an alternative project in
Marysville, Ohio. Union County Sheriff John Overly founded the program,
which has had a success rate of 92 percent among about 800 residents.
Overly said only three people fled the former school building used for the
non-secure facility while 57 others were sent to jail for not living up to
program standards.

"If we had kept the 800 people in jail it would've cost taxpayers well over
$1 million each year,'' said Overly, noting the Discipline and
Rehabilitation Center is attracting the attention of officials statewide as
a potentially valid alternative to incarceration.

"Our facility has no bars or locked doors,'' Overly said, pointing out that
most residents were convicted of nonviolent drug, drunken-driving and
non-support charges.

He said the facility is without television and radio. "We don't allow any
luxuries as a discipline to satisfy society's needs for punishment. Our
operation is a different concept that's worked out well so far.''

Schenectady County Sheriff William Barnes said he is not familiar with the
format suggested by Watts, but that candidates for a non-secure facility
would have to be limited to a handful of nonviolent categories.

"Most of the inmates at our jail wouldn't fit into such a program because
they've been convicted of more heavyweight crimes,'' Barnes said. "The
undertaking would have to be very well monitored. Any safe alternative that
would siphon off inmates from the mounting population at correction
facilities would be worth looking at.''

Barnes said Watts has been working with inmates at the Schenectady jail
throughout his eight years as sheriff. "He's always been a sincere person
trying to help the inmates. He's always kept a good ship.''

During 15 years of ministering to inmates, Watts put in three years as the
director of Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship, a ministry founded by the
former Nixon special counsel who went to prison for his role in the
Watergate scandal. Colson founded the Virginia-based Christian counseling
program after his release, and it is now involved in more than 600 prisons,
including 43 in eastern New York.

In 1990, Watts joined the Schenectady City Mission staff, spending most of
his time working with jail inmates. In 1994, he left the mission to form
the HOPE (Helping Other People to Escape) Prison Ministry, a non-profit
organization.

Watts said each inmate diverted from the jail to the alternative would save
the county $34,000. He said if 10 inmates per year from each county could
be kept out of the state prison system, the annual savings would be about
$22.5 million.

"This project is the wave of the future,'' he said. County officials, he
said, have indicated privately that there are abandoned buildings that
could be used for the project.

"I hope there will be enough interest at the meeting to start putting
together an advisory board to work at fund development,'' Watts said. "The
Schenectady facility would be the first of its kind in the state. Once it's
up and running, we could look at duplicating the program in other area
counties.''

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski