Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Criminal Justice topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Community corrections presents low failure‑to‑appear rate; visitation program seeks state and federal funding for virtual Family Justice Center
Summary
Strafford County’s community corrections supervisors reported a low failure‑to‑appear rate and widespread pretrial supervision; the county’s supervised visitation program proposed pursuing state funding and an OVW federal grant to develop a virtual Family Justice Center to overcome access barriers for survivors.
Community corrections and supervised‑visitation staff briefed Strafford County commissioners on program outcomes and funding options during the budget workshop.
Carrie Conway, who coordinates community corrections, said the department supervises about 571 people in community programs and monitors 80–90 pretrial inmates in custody. Conway told the commissioners the program’s failure‑to‑appear rate this year is approximately 2 percent — markedly lower than rates for defendants released on cash bail — and attributed the lower rate to close monitoring, drug testing, and close cooperation with the courts. She also described mental health‑focused supervision, MOUs with community partners and pathways for clinical services to reduce jail costs.
Scott Hampton described long‑running operation of a supervised visitation center (opened in 2012) and two strategies to sustain or expand the service: seek revived state funding along the lines of House Bill 565 (2019) that once allocated funds to some centers, or apply to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) ICJR program. Hampton proposed a virtual Family Justice Center — a web‑based, interactive “one‑stop” portal to address 31 identified access barriers (language, transportation, hours, disability) and noted federal ICJR funding could provide roughly $500,000 over three years with potential additional funds if certain focus areas are met.
Hampton said the virtual model could reduce physical‑space constraints and allow the visitation facility to serve as an administrative home for the project; he said the proposal would focus resources on victims’ access and could generate a template for other jurisdictions. Commissioners discussed grant competitiveness and suggested coordination with finance and delegation chairs for state or federal funding attempts.
No final funding decisions were made; staff were encouraged to pursue grant opportunities and return with formal proposals and budget implications.
