Day Report Center receives grant

Courtesy of the Western Regional Day Report Center

Cabell County Commissioner Scott Bias, Western Regional Day Report Director Christopher Dean, Gov. Joe Manchin and Day Report Assistant Director Justin Lockwood stand as the governor delivers a community corrections grant Tuesday, June 8, 2010, in Huntington.June 10, 2010 @ 12:00 AM

CURTIS JOHNSON

The Herald-Dispatch

CHARLESTON -- Gov. Joe Manchin presented an annual community corrections grant Tuesday to the Western Regional Day Report Center, according to a press release issued Tuesday.

The grant provides $425,000 in funding to assist in day-to-day operations of the center. Established in July 2008, the center provides Cabell and Wayne counties an alternative to jail for those accused of crime. The grant was presented during a Tuesday presentation in Charleston.

The center's director, Christopher Dean, said the $425,000 grant accounts for 65 to 70 percent of his agency's total revenue. It covers personnel costs. Other funding sources provide for the center's programing and utilities.

Defendants report to the center each day. They receive supervision and treatment, along with doing jobs assigned by supervisors. The center helps those defendants with addiction, mental health and other issues.

The program has been credited with saving counties commissions money otherwise spent to incarcerate inmates in the state's regional jail system.

The center also receives funding from other grants, along with the defendants and counties it serves.

Western Regional Day Report Center accepts $20,000 worth of equipment

May 14, 2010 @ 12:00 AM
CHRISTIAN ALEXANDERSEN

The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON -- The Western Regional Day Report Center recently accepted about $20,000 worth of equipment from Husqvarna, a worldwide producer of outdoor equipment.

Justin Lockwood, assistant director of the Western Regional Day Report Center, said donated items included chain saws as well as lawn mowers and trimmers. The donation was made by Rich Hardware & Rental in Barboursville, a local distributor of Husqvarna products.

Lockwood said the new equipment will be used by those assigned to the day report centers in Cabell and Wayne counties. Crews, which are made up of about 10 to 15 nonviolent offenders, travel around the area cleaning up public properties like parks and roadways.

Lockwood said they've recently participated in a massive community service project at the Beech Fork State Park with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the governor's REAP Program. Crews from the day report center also participate in tire cleanups and debris removal projects around the community, Lockwood said.

Cabell County Manager Stephen Zoeller said the crews tried out the new tools during a clean up at a piece of property on Darnell Road in Barboursville. The property, Zoeller said, was purchased by FEMA and given to the county to maintain.

Crews cleaned up the site and cut overgrown brush. The day report center crews, Zoeller said, provide a great service for the community by performing tasks that others don't have the time to do.

To suggest public properties to be cleaned up in Cabell and Wayne counties, visit the Western Regional Day Report Center's website at www.wrdrc.com.

Pay raises approved in Cabell budget

March 27, 2010 @ 12:00 AM

CHRISTIAN

The Herald-Dispatch

HUNTINGTON -- The Cabell County Commission unanimously approved the Fiscal Year 2010-2011 budget on Friday which included $500 pay raises for all civilian employees working in the courthouse and $1,000 raises for sheriff's deputies.

Commissioners agreed that the budget was one of the tightest they've have to deal with in recent years but were pleased they were able to give pay raises. The commission said it was also pleased that it was able to find enough money to give the elected officials most of what they asked for.

The cost of the raises for the 144 civilian employees and 40 deputies will be $72,000 and $40,000, respectively.

"I think the commission did as much as it possibly could with the dollars we had available," said Commissioner Nancy Cartmill. "I think what we gave (employees) was a very small pay raise for the county to give their employees, but it does let our employees know that we haven't forgotten them."

Commissioner Bob Bailey said the raises may be small, but they are much needed since the worldwide financial collapse.

"In this economy, when people have lost their jobs and people are really suffering, for us to be able to give a small raise to the deputies and to the civilian employees is good work," Bailey said.

The commissioners said there seemed to be enough money in the budget to warrant the raises.

Commissioner Scott Bias said there are a number of reasons why the deputies received higher raises than the civilian employees. The county has to compete with other counties and law enforcement agencies, such as the Huntington Police Department, who pay much more to their employees than what the deputies working in Cabell County are getting.

"A lot of our employees are underpaid but the deputies are farther underpaid," Bias said.

The reason the commission has money for pay raises is because of a pilot program that aims to cut jail costs by releasing nonviolent offenders before trial.

The pilot program, established by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, requires a full-time person to interview and perform background checks on all Cabell County arrests before trial. The individual reports back to a committee made up of representatives from law enforcement and court officials who will meet at least once a week.

The committee determines if certain non-violent offenders should be put in home confinement, work with the Day Report Center or housed at the Western Regional Jail in Barboursville. The committee makes its recommendations to designated circuit court and magistrate judges.

These judges decide if the offender should remain in jail or be released until trial. Commission approved the establishment of the program in November.

Since it was established in Cabell County, County Manager Stephen Zoeller said the county has saved $20,000 a month on jail costs.

Aside from pay raises, Zoeller said the commission also funded $13,000 for additional early-voting poll workers and $25,000 for overtime for deputies. The budget has been sent to the state auditor for final approval.

Capacity in regional jail gets attention

WVU Bureau Students
Published: Mar 22, 2010

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.--West Virginia officials are giving more attention to alternative sentencing as a way to deal with overcrowded prisons and jails. Currently, West Virginia's prisons have 6,500 inmates. That's 1,200 more than the system is designed to hold. Those excess inmates are then forced to stay at regional jails long term - something they weren't intended to do. Corrections Commissioner Jim Rubenstein said alternative sentencing could help. Doing so would reduce the amount of time inmates spend in jail, he said. This would mean shorter terms for nonviolent crimes, placing anyone who has been convicted of a drug-related offense into treatment programs, and allowing inmates to be put on home confinement. "We feel that 80 percent of people in the system have a direct addiction to a substance," Rubenstein said. "Seventy percent of them are nonviolent crimes." Providing treatment and counseling opportunities in a less secure setting to help inmates function in society when released is one way to deal with overcrowding issues, he said. "When I arrived in 1997 there were overcrowding issues," said Steve Canterbury, administrative director of courts in West Virginia. He was the executive director of the Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority from 1997 to 2005. During that time, about $520 million was spent on new facilities, and in 2005, overcrowding was still a problem, he said. More than a dozen recommendations have been made to Gov. Joe Manchin to help fix the problem. One proposal involved building a 1,200-bed medium security prison. "But clearly we can't build our way out of this problem," Canterbury said. Monongalia Circuit Court Judge Russell Clawges said he believes treatment is the best way to help drug offenders stay out of prisons. Clawges has presided over the county's drug court since it opened in February last year. "Drug courts are designed to deal with people who are in the system because of addiction or who are in the system and addicted," he said. "All of those in our program have been convicted of felonies." The county's drug court is based on three factors: supervision, treatment and responsibility. Those going through drug court must be heavily supervised. Instead of monthly meetings with a probation officer, offenders visit them weekly. Treatment is administered at mandatory rehabilitation sessions three times a week. "Addiction has been classified as an illness, and like any long term illness, proper treatment is needed for recovery," Clawges said. Responsibility also is key, Clawges said. If the individuals are unwilling to accept responsibility for their actions, they will not get better, he said. A system of incentives and sanctions also are used as motivation to do well in the program. Incentives include restaurant gift certificates. Sanctions can vary from writing an essay to spending a week behind bars. Those participating in the drug court are kept on home confinement for a minimum of a year, although few complete the program in that amount of time. "The cost of drug court is much cheaper than staying at a penitentiary," Clawges said. Monongalia's drug court is the seventh of its kind in the state. WVU journalism students James Carbone, Karilynn Galiotos and Brian Young contributed to this report.

© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Day Report crews help pick up trash

Click to read article and view pictures on Herald Dispatch Website

January 03, 2010 @ 10:45 PM

RACHEL GENSLER

For The Herald-Dispatch

HUNTINGTON -- Clients who participate in the Western Regional Day Report Center in Cabell County are making a dent in the community's trash problems, and a new Web site allows people to make trash pick-up requests.

The center provides nonviolent offenders in the county an alternative sentencing from jail times that includes community service, often picking up trash from areas in need.

Tire drop-off a combined effort with WV Department of Environmental Protection and Western Regional Day Report Center

July 16, 2009 @ 03:35 PM
2009/The Herald-Dispatch
Herald-Dispatch.com

Click to read article and view pictures on Herald Dispatch Website

HUNTINGTON -- Huntington residents will have an opportunity to get rid of old tires this weekend.

Between 8 a.m. and noon Saturday, July 18, residents can drop off up to 10 tires at the city garage, 419 2nd Ave. (Veterans Memorial Boulevard).

You must show proof of residency within city limits. For more information, call Mayor Kim Wolfe's office at 304-696-5540.

The drop-off event is a combined effort of the city of Huntington, Western Regional Day Report Center and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.

Litter-control efforts miss some areas

April 08, 2009 @ 12:07 AM

CHRISTIAN ALEXANDERSEN

The Herald-Dispatch

Click here to read the entire article and view photos on the Herald Dispatch website.

HUNTINGTON -- While a growing group of volunteers are at work to keep litter under control inside Huntington's city limits, the county is often left with few options to keep rural areas clean.

Most of the 1,647 volunteers in the Adopt YOUR Block anti-litter program focus their efforts inside the city. That means relatively few of the volunteers in that program pick up trash elsewhere in Cabell County, and the county says it has fewer resources to focus on the problem.

Meanwhile, the city plans to step up its efforts for keeping neighborhoods clean.

For example, included in the city's 2009-2010 budget is money for purchasing two dump trucks, said Brandi Jacobs-Jones, Huntington's interim public works director. The additional trucks, Jacobs-Jones said, will enable the city's Public Works Department to schedule routine litter pickups in the next several months.

The city also intends to run two street-sweeper shifts beginning in mid-May.

Huntington also recently announced that the Mayor's Committee for a Sustainable Community will conduct the inaugural "Huntington Clean Sweep" Saturday, April 25, through Saturday, May 2. The event will focus on cleaning up both the downtown and residential areas of the city.

In addition, Jim Johnson has been hired as the new constituent liaison services employee who will advise the mayor on issues of concern to residents. Jacobs-Jones said residents can call Johnson at 304-696-5540 to report litter and illegal dumps in Huntington.

Some cleanup efforts are under way at the county level, but one enforcement initiative is in limbo.

Justin Lockwood, assistant director of the Western Regional Day Report Center, helps run the only county-sponsored groups in Cabell and Wayne counties that pick up litter.

The cleanup crews are made up of about 10 to 15 nonviolent criminal offenders who travel around Wayne and Cabell counties between two and four days a week for eight hours a day.

Cabell County Assistant Manager Chris Tatum said the county commission funds a number of eco-friendly initiatives -- including spending $100,000 a year on the day report crews. The majority of the initiatives, Tatum said, are recycling programs.

Tatum recommended that residents call the sheriff's department to report illegal dumping in the county.

The key to combating litter, Lockwood said, is persistence.

"We believe if you chip away at a stone long enough, you're going to create something nice," Lockwood said. "The crews aren't going anywhere, in fact we're going to continue to grow."

Lockwood said he expects to add another cleanup crew to each county so they can cover a larger

area.

Right now, he said, litter covers all of the county roads and it's difficult to make a dent in the problem with only one crew per county.

"Unfortunately, litter is a communitywide problem," Lockwood said. "There's plenty to pick up throughout the community, and we're glad to do it."

Lockwood said the center will launch a Web site soon that will allow citizens to suggest sites for future cleanups and see which sites are going to be cleaned next. Currently, employees of the county courthouse, members of the local court system and concerned citizens regularly report areas in need of cleanup to the day report center.

The Cabell and Wayne solid waste authorities are limited to a recycling program and cleaning up illegal dumps. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection also aids with cleaning up illegal dumps.

In January 2008, the Cabell County Commission approved Jim Smith as the litter control officer for the county upon the recommendation of the Cabell County Solid Waste Authority. Smith's appointment came after the commission allocated about $15,000 from its contingency fund in late December 2007 to purchase surveillance equipment to try to put a stop to illegal dumping.

His responsibilities included setting up the camera at one of the 34 identified illegal dump sites in the county and providing video evidence to the county sheriff's department and local branch of the state DEP to enforce the fines and penalties associated with illegal dumping.

Smith, who volunteered for the unpaid position, vacated his post in 2008, leaving the equipment unused and the county without a litter control officer.

Ralph Taylor, chairman of the Cabell County Solid Waste Authority, said he has been unable to fill the unpaid position and has yet to suggest to the commission another person for the post. Taylor said he has asked the commission to apply for a state grant to fund the position.