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Controller details CRI costs; committee hears mental-health funding request and recidivism data
Summary
Washington County Controller Paul Sherman presented a breakdown of costs for the Community Reentry Initiative (CRI), including officer staffing, utilities and proposed mental-health services. Committee members questioned how deputy salaries were allocated; staff reported early recidivism of 19.38% but cautioned longer follow-up is needed.
Controller Paul Sherman presented a multi-year cost analysis of the county'run Community Reentry Initiative (CRI), telling the Finance & Budget Committee that the first federal grant year included a $355,000 reimbursable award with a county match described in Sherman's materials as about $118,000 and additional startup costs.
Sherman said he calculated a fully loaded average cost for detention officers of roughly $4,053 per officer and used that figure to estimate staff costs for two deputies covering the CRI 24 hours a day. For year-two projections he described the county match as $94,000, projected detention-officer expense at about $710,000, utilities near $28,000 and a requested $169,000 for mental-health services; he said the federal share in year two would be about $284,000.
Using those figures Sherman presented two unit-cost views: a bed-day cost he reported as about $91.64 per bed-day and a higher per-detainee figure when the average census (reported as 24) is used instead of capacity. Sherman emphasized that some costs (notably the deputies' salaries) are borne by the county whether or not the CRI exists because personnel were reassigned from the main jail rather than newly hired.
Committee members pressed two related questions: whether the deputies assigned to the CRI represent additional payroll expense and whether those salaries should be allocated to the CRI per-day cost. Sheriff Cantrell (addressed in the discussion) and multiple JPs said the eight deputies supporting CRI were reassigned from main-jail shifts and would be needed elsewhere if CRI closed; Sherman and others said that reallocating them back would not eliminate payroll expense but could increase overtime at the main jail.
The committee also discussed outcomes. Program staff reported an early year-one return-to-incarceration rate of 19.38% for program graduates, and said the initial KPI goal had been to cut typical national return rates (cited by staff as roughly 80% for certain nonviolent offenders) toward a 40% target. Staff cautioned that the figure covers the program's first year and that a three-year interval is the standard timeframe for recidivism assessment.
Public commenters urged caution and recommended an independent assessment before further expansion or long-term commitments. Several citizens said the CRI began as a short pilot and asked the court to pause and evaluate whether the program is meeting stated goals before committing additional county funds.
The committee did not take a final funding vote on the mental-health services item in committee; Sherman offered to provide more detailed vendor-level accounting and bed-day data on request.
