Lane County commissioners' plan to keep parole, reentry programs afloat

Lane County Commissioners, faced with a projected shortfall, have thrown their support behind efforts to keep as stable as possible the community corrections and justice reinvestment programs that have resulted in the county becoming a leader in reducing recidivism.

Lane County's program is a model state leaders are paying other counties to copy, according to Greg Rikhoff, assistant county administrator and director of community justice and rehabilitation services at Lane County.

"We've seen statistically tested proof that we can reduce recidivism from 55% down to single digits," Rikhoff told the Register-Guard. "It's remarkable in its work."

Commissioners voted unanimously last month to pull $5.4 million from other parts of county funds to continue paying for the programs through the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Without these programs, "we'll be sending people to prison," District Attorney Patricia Perlow said. "Then they'll be coming back to our community and they will not have these services at re-entry that we're currently providing. They won't have the services at the front end that we're currently providing, and our recidivism rates are going to go back."

The commissioners' vote, Perlow said, delayed "across-the-system reductions in level of service to catastrophic levels."

Success finding a path to parole instead of prison

In 2011, the Oregon Legislature considered legislation that would have outlined a path for counties to place some people on parole instead of sending them to prison. The bill didn't progress to a floor vote, but leaders in Marion and Lane counties saw potential and chose to become pilot projects.

Someone who pleads guilty to a nonviolent drug-related property crime in the counties, and is enrolled in the 416 program by the District Attorney's office, goes on probation instead of facing prison time. And while on probation, they get substance abuse treatment and mentoring.

According to a study from the Oregon Social Learning Center the program didn't make a big difference in Marion County, but in Lane County the researchers saw, "significantly greater improvements across … outcomes."

Michael McCart is a researcher who studies clinical psychology for people involved in the criminal justice system and led the study on the SB416-influenced programs. He agreed with the positive assessment from county leaders.

"It helped." McCart said. "The probationers who were getting 416, they got higher quality service. They got more frequent contacts with service providers and the data suggested it helped quite a bit to reduce recidivism."

According to the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission 38.9% of people convicted of a crime in Lane County commit another one in the next three years, tying for the fourth lowest in Oregon and the lowest west of the Deschutes River.

What's getting cut in Lane County

The county commissioners' vote didn't entirely make up for the funding shortfall. "This is still a net reduction to an already inadequately resourced system," commissioner Laurie Trieger said.

Some of the cuts include fewer electronic monitoring slots for people nearing the end of their sentences, fewer parole officers, fewer transitional housing beds for people exiting prison and reduced hours for the mentors and case managers for those people.

Lane County relies on about $26 million in state money to fund community corrections and justice reinvestment. But it will cost closer to $37 million to fund the programs at a rate that would maintain 2021-23 service levels.

Community corrections funds pay for monitoring for parole and probation, allowing incarcerated people to perform community service, work outside of jail or serve house arrest. The fund also pays for services like drug treatment, mental health counseling and reentry transition services.

The justice reinvestment fund pays for services that can "reduce recidivism and reduce the county's dependence on prison beds," according to Paul Solomon, former executive director of Sponsors Inc., the nonprofit Lane County partners with to provide re-entry services. The fund covers services such as case management for people who are incarcerated, dispute resolution and victim support services.

The commissioners will revisit the budget next month and hear recommendations on where to pull the money from.

County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky said options could include taking money from the general fund, as commissioners did to patch a smaller $2 million gap for the 2021-23 biennium, or using remaining American Rescue Plan money.

Efforts for state corrections funding reform

Oregon doles out corrections funding based on how many people are under supervision, meaning the county will get less money if the programs continue being successful in keeping people out of jail.

Lane county's supervision population shrunk from 9.57% of the state supervision population in 2019 to 8.77% in 2023. That translates to $2 million less in community corrections and $390,017 less in justice reinvestment. It would take $10.9 million more than allotted to maintain current service levels.

“There’s a two-tiered problem," said Mokrohisky. "One is the amount of resources that the state allocates is less than is needed. And then two is the way in which those funds are allocated is based more on the population than it is on the risk level and the quality outcomes that we’re trying to drive.”

Rikhoff said the "one-size-fits-all formula" also doesn't recognize other unique circumstances. He and other county leaders are concerned that if the state funding model doesn't change, the county will have to cut deeper.

"Our community wants community members with behavioral health issues to have behavioral services," Rikhoff said. "So we're one of the three counties in Oregon where we have a mental health unit where officers work almost exclusively with clients that have high behavioral health needs."

"Those services cost more. And it's hard for us to be innovative when we don't have the money to do it," he said.

Additionally, because state funding is based on observation numbers from two years prior, the county is receiving money for some of its lowest numbers: between when the pandemic was active and when Measure 110, the state ballot initiative that decriminalized drug possession, took effect.

The ballot measure had the intended affect of reducing arrests. But previous arrests funded the rehabilitation services for people who were incarcerated, whether for drugs or other reasons, and the measure didn't offer another path to pay for this, county officials said.

While having fewer people in jail is a desirable outcome and saves some money, community corrections has "never been funded at an adequate level," Solomon said.

"This has just been a steep cliff," he said. "If this was gradual, I think we slowly could have begun to shrink the system."

But when you have to cut 17 parole and probation staff, "that's bound to have unintended consequences even though they're supervising fewer people."

"The level of reductions we're facing will eviscerate our best programs and lay off some of our county's best and brightest employees," Solomon told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 28. He highlighted Sponsors' transitional housing as an example of one of those services, which he said has housed 497 Lane County residents exiting prison over the last five years.

Lawmakers expressed a desire to better fund community corrections.

"We are basically having individuals that are in their profession, being able to help people redefine themselves and understand how they have worked in the past and how they can move forward in an incentive based process," said committee chair, Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Springfield and south and central Eugene. "That approach has been more successful" than a more punitive approach.

Alan Torres covers local government for the Register-Guard. He can be reached at atorres@registerguard.com or on twitter @alanfryetorres

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Lane County plugs "catastrophic" corrections budget shortfall