For the first time in recent memory the number of inmates serving time in state penitentiaries from Houston and Henry counties are down.

Houston County had 265 inmates incarcerated in state detention facilities in 2003-04, down from 325 in 2002-2003.

"It's down for the first time in my memory," said presiding Circuit Court Judge Lawson Little. "That's almost a 20 percent drop in our prison population."

Houston County historically has sent the highest number of inmates to prison per capita of all counties in Alabama.

Little attributes the decline in the number of inmates being sent to prison to the success of the county's work release and pretrial diversion programs.

"That's obviously good news because it saves the state money," Little said.

He estimates that the county is saving anywhere from $600,000 to $1 million a year depending on what figure you use to calculate how much it costs to incarcerate an inmate in prison. On average it costs the state about $9,000 a year per inmate, he said.

The county established a work release program in 2002 where non-violent offenders serve jail time in a low security structured environment where they are allowed to continue holding a job. The pretrial diversion program was started in 2003 and allows first-time or non-violent offenders to avoid prison time as long as they pay restitution to the victims.

Little said those two programs allow judges to still punish offenders but keep non-violent offenders from taking up precious prison space.

"First time offenders or those who have committed lesser crimes probably don't need to be in the penitentiary," Little said. "That's important because the way the parole board is turning out folks it could possibly discourage them from letting violent offenders out earlier because they have more room for them."

Houston/Henry County District Attorney Doug Valeska said he is pleased with the results of the pretrial diversion program because it has provided him an alternative to sending non-violent offenders to prison.

"I'm for these programs," Valeska said. "These have helped. It gives the person a second chance, plus there are conditions placed on them... if you make a mistake you're put back on the docket. And I get to cherry pick who gets into this program."

Valeska said Rosa Davis, the attorney for the Alabama Sentencing Commission who dogged him for years about sending a disproportionate number of people to state prison, said the county's pretrial diversion program has become a model for other Alabama counties struggling with prison overcrowding.

Newly elected Dale County District Attorney Kirke Adams is considering implementing his own pretrial diversion program.

The program had 718 participants in 2003-04. Of that, 304 had to be revoked. The county had an additional 123 enter the program from district court and only had 47 revocations.

Pretrial diversion collected $230,000 in restitution that went to the victims that otherwise would never have been collected.

"So that almost 900 people who didn't go to jail and weren't on the docket," Valeska said. "And we're still trying our violent crimes and sending people to prison."

Gary Knight, who oversees work release, said the program is saving taxpayers about $800,000 a year.

There are presently 110 inmates in the work release program being housed in the old county jail and another 80 on suspended work release who are part of the program but reside in their own homes. It would cost the state about $22 a day to house them if they were sent to prison.

"This is money the state or county is not having to pay out," Knight said.

What's more, the work release program is paid for entirely by the inmate. Inmates accepted into the program must pay 30 percent of their gross income to run the program and an additional 20 percent toward fines and court costs, which is lower than what the state charges.

The work release program last year collected $179,844 in fines and costs and another $70,000 from those in the suspended work program.

"That's a quarter of a million dollars we have collected that in many instances would not be collected," Knight said. "And it doesn't cost us a thing. They pay their own way."

Knight said the numbers speak for themselves as far as the cost savings and the space being saved in state prison.

"I would say at least 80 of those would be in the state penitentiary if it weren't for this program," Knight said.

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