Muskegon County OKs $182,225 state grant for sheriff’s community corrections programs

The Muskegon County public safety committee on Dec. 11 authorized the sheriff’s office to accept a $182,225 grant from the Michigan Department of Corrections to support community corrections programming.

Scott Lamb of Community Corrections told the committee the funds will continue existing in-jail and community classes, run in part by a single in-jail contractor, Kelly Austin, and by Catholic Charities in the community. Lamb said staff also provide pretrial supervision and other case management services.

“We report monthly and quarterly and then also a year-end report,” Lamb said, describing performance metrics the state requires. He told commissioners the program tracks recidivism for course completers and said that, for participants in the Thinking Matters class who completed it in jail and the community, about 90 percent did not return to jail within a year.

Commissioners asked how the programs are counted and which contractors are involved; Lamb said the full grant packet (about 20 pages) contains reporting requirements and program descriptions. He also provided facility figures: the jail’s maximum bed count was stated as 616 and the facility’s population was listed as 376 (that number included people housed at other institutions, he said, and the actual head count was roughly 300 to 400).

The committee voted to accept the grant and authorized the board chair to sign the grant documents. Staff said they will return reports as required by the grant’s terms.

The committee’s packet was noted to include the grant document and program metrics; commissioners asked staff to provide the full grant paperwork for review.