HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Reno County Commission approved three items concerning Community Corrections, which works with criminal offenders to hopefully turn their lives around.
One is for a comprehensive plan grant application for the Adult Intensive Supervision Program to receive $689,120, a second for Behavioral Health Grant to receive $243,205. Both would come from the Kansas Department of Corrections.
Corrections Director Randy Regehr was asked if there is any concern that they might not get as much as requested, he says they did receive a slight cut last year, but thinks things will remain flat this year.
Regehr admits these grants do add up to a lot of money, but compared this cost to how much is spent when a criminal defendant is sent to prison. He says to house an offender in prison could cost as much as $25,000 to $45,000 per year. He says they spend around $2,000 to $2,500 for those in corrections, which is much less than prison.
He says they have been getting results, meaning that they have surpassed the 75 percent success threshold needed for the grants. He told the commission that, as of Monday, they were showing an 84 percent success rate here in the county.
The commission also approved some policy changes for the case file audits, levels of supervision and cognitive skills classes. Those policy changes were already approved by the Community Corrections Advisory Board.
Community Corrections supervises adult offenders who receive that over a prison sanction.