Blue Ridge Court Services reports steady outcomes, highlights reentry and specialty dockets

Blue Ridge Court Services Director Megan Rhone told the Staunton City Council on Jan. 9 that the regional court services agency served about 1,700 new clients in fiscal 2024 and continues to shift its caseload toward pretrial supervision.

Rhone said the agency logged 671 probation placements and 923 pretrial placements in FY2024, conducted 836 pretrial investigations, referred 251 clients to reentry services and made 95 placements on home electronic monitoring. She said the agency also recorded 23 inductions into a therapeutic docket and 13 inductions into recovery court.

The report matters because Blue Ridge Court Services provides local alternatives to incarceration and helps judges, magistrates and attorneys assess risk and access services, Rhone said. “Our mission is to provide research-proven sentencing alternatives for the local criminal justice system, to reduce jail overcrowding, enhance public safety, and offer rehabilitative opportunities,” she told council.

Rhone walked council through outcomes: a 76% program success rate for misdemeanors and a 51% success rate for felony probation placements, which she said is comparable to state averages for felony supervision. She said 53% of supervised clients were employed and 78% of placements were assessed as low-risk. Demographic breakdowns were provided in the written report distributed to council members.

Rhone described reentry services — a voluntary program supported by the Community Action Partnership of St. Augustine/Waynesboro (CAPSOL) — that helps clients with employment, transportation, clothing vouchers and other basic needs to support court-ordered conditions. “If we don't address the whole person and the basic needs, then the court-ordered obligations sometimes just won't happen,” she said. She said Blue Ridge staff also visit Middle River Regional Jail monthly to meet people 30 days before release to begin connecting them with housing and services.

Rhone also described specialty dockets. The therapeutic docket serves people who were in mental-health crisis at the time of their offense; the recovery court serves people whose criminal activity is related to addiction. In FY2024, the therapeutic docket had 23 new inductions and 11 graduates; recovery court had 13 inductions and eight graduates.

On alternatives to confinement, Rhone said home electronic monitoring has a daily cost to the city and program participants of about $12 compared with an average daily jail bed cost of $109.52, and that electronic monitoring “frees up beds for higher-risk individuals.” She cautioned it is not suitable for everyone and said staff monitor public-safety concerns and can request court review or a capias when supervision fails.

Funding for Blue Ridge Court Services comes largely from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (about 73% of funding), with additional support from the Virginia Supreme Court for recovery court, CAPSOL for reentry services, and the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services for the Pretrial Initiative on Mental Illness (PEMI). Rhone said PEMI appears on bonds as an acronym and triggers a routing to a dedicated PEMI officer for assessment.

Councilors asked how the closure of a state correctional facility would affect the program; Rhone said it would not affect Blue Ridge’s operations or funding because the agency supervises local misdemeanor probation and short local felony sentences served in regional jails rather than state Department of Corrections facilities.

The presentation concluded with Rhone offering to share five years of placement data with council. The report distributed at the dais includes detailed demographic tables and program outcome measures.