PRISON STARTS PROBATION REVOCATION PROGRAM

VIDALIA -- Some people on probation are getting one more chance before
having to serve time in jail thanks to a new program at the Concordia
Parish Correctional Facility I.

Sheriff Randy Maxwell said the facility was selected as a site for the
state to initiate a 90-day probation revocation program.

In the program, people on probation that violate the probation on a
technicality or a minor violation such as not meeting with the parole
officer or a minor altercation will be allowed to serve in a 90 day
program. "It's not for anyone that goes out and truly commits another
crime," Maxwell said.

The program, for people on DOC probation from all across the state,
includes counseling, job skills training and drug courses along with
evaluations.

The small time frame gives the person a small time to regroup but
enough time to find out "what went wrong," Maxwell said.

The program relieves the person from having to serve the remainder of
the sentence initially given them by the judge, getting them back into
society much faster. "We're trying to stop the revolving doors" and
make the people contributors to society, Maxwell said.

It is easy to lock people up like they are in a warehouse, he said,
but "changing lives and keeping them out of jail is the challenge."

The benefit is not only to the person that violated their probation
but to the state, keeping the amount of prisoners, and therefore the
cost, down.

Maxwell said it costs $20,000 a year to incarcerate a prisoner, so
keeping someone in jail for 90 days instead of a year or two of their
original sentence is much cheaper. "Hopefully this will cut down (the
number of inmates) and save the state of Louisiana a lot of money,"
Maxwell said.

Right now the program serves about 40 people but the capacity is for
200 people.

Right now, more people have been hired to handle the extra people,
mostly for counseling, but for everything else that goes with housing
more inmates.

Also, a new building is being added to the facilities on Louisiana 15
for the state-funded program.

The building will be 10,000 sq. feet and include a chapel and
classrooms. The final date of completion is up in the air, Maxwell
said, and will depend on the weather.