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Finance committee approves probation job-placement, recovery coach contracts; staff says long-term outcomes not tracked
Summary
The committee approved two one-year contracts totaling up to $77,000 for probation employment services and a recovery coach coordinator on June 24, and staff told members the department does not track post-probation employment longevity beyond probation terms.
DuPage County’s Finance Committee on June 24 approved two contracts to support job placement and recovery coaching for people on probation while members pressed staff for better long-term outcome data on recidivism and job retention.
The committee approved a contract for Kelly Graham to provide job-placement services to unemployed probationers for up to $32,000 for the period June 30, 2025 through June 29, 2026. It also approved a contract for Lauren McLaughlin to serve as a recovery coach coordinator with a not-to-exceed amount of $45,000, for services beginning July 1, 2025 and running through July 8, 2026, according to the agenda language presented to the committee.
A probation department staff member told the committee the office collects employment and performance metrics for participants while they remain on probation but does not routinely capture long-term outcomes once supervision ends. “We do not capture that data simply because once a person's probation sentence is complete, we just lose jurisdiction to talk with those individuals,” the staff member said, noting the average probation term is about 24 months. The staff member said the department will verify referral and short-term retention metrics that are tracked while a person remains under supervision.
Member Desart and others said they were reluctant to allocate funds without clearer evidence of long-term effectiveness. Member Desart suggested securing consent from program participants at intake to allow limited post-probation follow-up, and asked whether contractors such as Kelly Graham do any long-term outreach. The staff reply was that the department verifies employment while probation is active but that post-supervision tracking is not currently part of routine data collection.
Staff also noted program funding sources: the employment coordinator position is paid from probation fees, while the recovery coach coordinator position is grant-funded. Committee members asked staff to explore ways to capture longer-term outcomes where feasible and noted the county’s need to account for program effectiveness when allocating limited resources.
Both contracts were approved by the committee by voice vote; motions and seconds were recorded in the meeting minutes and no roll-call tally was provided in the transcript.
