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Pine County probation director reports $244,250 restorative justice grant and falling new probation entries
Summary
Probation Director Terry Faucet told the board Pine County received $244,250 from the Office of Restorative Practices to expand youth restorative justice services, reported fewer new probation entries in the last year, and summarized successful truancy and electronic monitoring programs.
Pine County’s probation director told the Board of Commissioners the county will receive a $244,250 award from the Office of Restorative Practices to expand youth restorative justice services and that the department is showing measurable reductions in some formal referrals.
Terry Faucet, the county probation director, said the grant will begin Aug. 1 and includes $29,000 earmarked for juvenile restitution. He said the award “enables us to expand our services to include the community” and cited grant writer Reese (who authored the application) and local partners as key contributors.
Faucet presented the department’s annual snapshot and said new offender entries on probation were 396 in the most recent 12-month period, a 20% decrease from the prior snapshot. He cautioned the snapshot excludes pretrial diversion, truancy, and restorative justice cases and therefore undercounts the department’s total workload; he said pretrial supervision and diversion work add substantial time demands.
The director highlighted juvenile-focused work the department plans to expand using grant funds. He described a youth education truancy intervention (YETI) program developed by staff member Devin and a new youth restorative track that will deploy community volunteers and partners; Faucet said 86% of students who completed YETI showed improved attendance and avoided formal court referrals. On restorative justice outcomes, Faucet reported the county’s C5 program had 31 referrals since 2016 with an average completion time of 95 days and a 10% recidivism rate at one year post-completion.
Faucet also described programs used as alternatives to placement: electronic monitoring saved roughly $134,000 in placement costs in the last period and the county estimates more than $2 million saved in placement costs since that program began. He summarized other department programs—DWI intensive supervision, first- and second-time DWI curricula, and adult cognitive-skills groups—and provided completion and recidivism figures the department tracks.
Board members asked about staffing and mandates. Faucet said mandates at the state level are increasing workload with little state funding attached and that much of the department’s staff compensation is grant-subsidized; he said the department’s most significant budget pressure is salaries. He reported 10 county probation staff hires within the prior year and said turnover has been manageable, with 8 probation officers plus support staff currently on the roster.
Faucet framed the restorative justice grant and truancy interventions as front-end investments intended to reduce future juvenile justice involvement, saying community-based restorative tracks and the newly funded programs should reduce later system costs and placements. The board received the presentation; no formal board action on departmental staffing or program funding was taken during the meeting.
