FORUM LOOKS AT JAIL ALTERNATIVES

The timing was good Monday for the Rimrock Foundation's annual
educational forum, which dealt with alternatives to incarcerating criminals.

Just three weeks ago, the Pew Charitable Trusts issued a study saying
Montana would see the fastest prison population growth in the country
by 2011 unless it changes its prisoner-release and sentencing practices.

'Astonishing Statistic'

Bill Lamdin, president of the Rimrock Foundation's Board of
Directors, said that "astonishing statistic" and the explosion in the
number of criminal offenders who have drug problems point to the need
to do something besides build more prisons.

The forum at the Mansfield Health Education Center featured three
people speaking about programs that divert offenders from jails and prisons.

Diverting Offenders

Eric Bryson, director of Gallatin County Court Services in Bozeman,
talked about how to bring representatives of the entire criminal
justice system together to begin diverting offenders away from incarceration.

Roland Mena, director of the Montana Board of Crime Control,
presented the highlights of a federal study of jail crowding in the
state. Mona Sumner, chief operating officer of the Rimrock
Foundation, talked about the success of the foundation's latest
diversion program, which involves treatment for jail inmates at the
Silver Leaf Center near North Park.

Bryson said Gallatin County Court Services is the only county-funded
program of its type in Montana. It encompasses pretrial services,
community corrections, treatment court, electronic monitoring, a
pre-release program and a misdemeanor probation officer, all working
together to decrease the jail population in Gallatin County.

The department was more than a high-minded experiment, Bryson said -
it was a direct response to county voters' refusal to approve funding
for a new jail. Bryson said the department has been making strides
since it was created in 2004, but his talk Monday was more about how
other counties can start similar programs, not specifically about the
success of the Gallatin County program.

His main piece of advice was to "get all the players around the
table," or, in the case of Gallatin County, on the Criminal Justice
Coordinating Council. Every facet of the criminal justice system has
to have representatives on the council, he said, and the group has to
have to authority to get things done.

He said the council has been successful because it stays involved in
relatively small problems within the system, calling on the expertise
of its members to fine-tune and streamline operations.

More than anything, Bryson said, the council focuses on helping
people with drug problems get supervision, treatment and mental
health assistance. "Diversion" is more than finding an alternative to
jail or prison in a specific instance, he said. It means getting
people the help they need to change their core beliefs and actions so
they stop going through the criminal justice system.

Sumner made a similar point, saying the recidivism rate in Montana is
upwards of 70 percent. By contrast, she said, Rimrock's jail-based
treatment program, funded by a federal grant through the Board of
Crime Control, has been showing success in keeping its clients
employed and off drugs.

Of the 27 people who have been served by the program, which began
last August, 72 percent were unemployed when they entered it and all
of them had drug problems - in 45 percent of the cases, a
methamphetamine problem, Sumner said.

Of those who have completed the program, 60 percent were employed
after six months and 72 percent had not experienced a relapse into
drug use after six months, which Sumner said was "an enormously high
number for this very high-need population."

The program is for nonviolent, drug-addicted offenders who receive a
minimum of three months of treatment while incarcerated and go into
intensive outpatient programs offered by the drug court after being
released from jail.

As part of the program, the inmates go to the Silver Leaf Center five
days a week for therapy and educational programs. Most of them
require 12 to 18 months of additional treatment after they are
released from jail, Sumner said, and "treatment lasts as long as the
individual needs it to."

At the state level, Mena said, the Board of Crime Control will be
working to follow the recommendations of the National Institute of
Corrections study of jail overcrowding. The institute, which is part
of the U.S. Department of Justice, conducted phone interviews before
coming to Montana last summer and visiting four jails around the state.

The Yellowstone County jail had 420 inmates on the day of the visit,
though its designed capacity is 286, Mena said. In broader terms, he
said, the team found that many jail inmates are being held on a
pre-trial basis for nonviolent misdemeanors, and there are few
controls in place to track which inmates really deserve to be jailed.

The federal team ended up presenting 10 recommendations, including
the creation of a statewide offender-management committee that would
have oversight of efforts to put the other recommendations into practice.

Another recommendation is to collect and analyze offender profile
information statewide to come up with the base data needed to figure
out what factors are leading to overcrowding. As it is now, Mena
said, at least 11 different data bases are being used by jails around
the state.

Other recommendations are to conduct an analysis of all the treatment
resources in the state; develop a flow chart showing how offenders
move through the criminal justice system; conduct cross-system
training among the counties; develop a comprehensive strategic plan;
and conduct pilot tests of new strategies.