Those in Community Corrections working to avoid jail

Dothan Eagle
By Lance Griffin
October 18, 2009

John Pitts, a security guard at the Houston County community corrections building, talks with inmates Thursday afternoon while on duty.

Charles Free is down to his third and final chance.

He is on his third job just two years after being plucked from Ventress Correctional Facility, where he was serving 18 years for marijuana and methamphetamine convictions, and Ronnie Alvarado has stuck her neck out for him for the last time.

“He knows what’s at stake,” said Alvarado, whose job is to cajole, beg and nag employers to hire workers through the Houston County Community Corrections program.

Free was laid off from his first job and fired from his second after fussing with his boss. But he knows cars, and when Alvarado bumped into a potential employer on Thursday, she had to try one more time.

And so Free started his new job on Friday. If he is late once, fails a drug test or misses work without notifying his boss, he’s shipped back to Ventress. He forfeited his 2013 parole date to participate in community corrections, so Free is looking at a long prison term if he messes up.

“I know what I have to do,” Free said.

Gary Knight, who heads Houston County’s Community Corrections program, reminds Free of his incentives.

“What you need to do is get a picture of your grandbaby,” Knight said. “And every time you think about slipping, take it out and look at that picture.”

“Yes sir,” Free replied.

Free is one of about 112 inmates in Houston County Community Corrections, a seven-year-old program that provides alternative sentencing options for certain non-violent offenders. Inmates spend the night in the old Houston County jail on North Oates Street and report to work during the day.

Alvarado works with as many as 180 employers in Houston County who have agreed to hire community corrections inmates. The incentive for the employers is a $2,400 annual tax break per worker hired. The incentive for inmates is freedom from jail, and the opportunity to participate in several programs, including Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, GEDcourses, substance abuse education and others. At least two area churches are involved in assisting the inmates as well.

The incentive for judges to sentence offenders to community corrections is to alleviate an already-overcrowded jail situation and to save money. Most community corrections inmates have been convicted of drug or property crimes that could warrant jail sentences, and whose offenses are too severe for mere probation.

Employers who hire program inmates send their paychecks directly to community corrections, which takes a percentage of the check and applies it to the inmates’ outstanding court costs, fines, restitution or other costs. The rest is then given to the inmate.

According to statistics compiled by the Alabama Department of Corrections, it costs about $13 per day to supervise/house a community corrections inmate, compared to $40 per day for an inmate in the county jail.

Knight said the community corrections program collected $460,000 in fines, court costs and restitution last year.

Critics of the program claim there is an increased risk to public safety. They also claim the program is a mere pit stop for many inmates who will wind up in jail again. Knight said the program does not track recidivism rates, but he and Alvarado can cite success stories of men and women who have used the program to turn their lives around.

John Pitts is one.

Pitts now works as a security guard at the community corrections building for DSI. He said he’s been clean for five years, after spending much of his life in and out of jail on drug and alcohol charges.

“If it wasn’t for this program, I’d probably be dead,” Pitts said.

Pitts spent 30 months in community corrections, working, attending GEDclasses and going through alcohol and drug treatment programs. He started a Bible study there and now chairs an alcoholics anonymous meeting.

“There is no way you can come here and stay, then leave the same way you came unless you just don’t want to change,” Pitts said.

The community corrections program has allowed Shequtia Jackson to keep her job at Wayne Farms. She attends Narcotics Anonymous and Bradford substance abuse classes and serves as a GED tutor to other community corrections inmates.

“When I get out, the classes will help me stay clean. It gives me a support group so I will have someone to talk to,” Jackson said.

Knight said the program exists to give people a chance to make correct decisions.

“Believe me, there are no victims in this program. Everyone here has made a victim of someone else,” Knight said. “But you have to be realistic. It’s a revolving door if you don’t do something. Sitting in a jail cell watching ‘The Price is Right’ and ‘Oprah’ is not doing any good.”

Community corrections by the numbers

$6.1 million — Amount given to program by the state in 2008
1,615 — Number of statewide prison-bound inmates diverted to community corrections

34 — Number of community corrections programs currently in Alabama
112 — Number of community corrections inmates in Houston County currently

$41.47 — Average daily cost for incarceration of a state prison inmate
$13.06 — Average daily cost per community corrections offender

6 — Number of inmates in Houston County community corrections program in 2002