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Office of Community Corrections warns indigent electronic monitoring fund near exhaustion; board asks administration for options
Summary
Director Ken Bobo requested $195,000 (or indirect-cost relief) to sustain OCC programs, warning that indigent electronic monitoring could run out in August and layoffs could force defendants back to jail and imperil specialty court certifications. Commissioners asked administration to explore ARPA and other short-term options and to include the operational need in the FY27 budget.
Ken Bobo, director of the Office of Community Corrections (OCC), told the board OCC faces a budget shortfall driven by rising indirect costs and a near exhaustion of the indigent electronic monitoring fund. He said the unit supervises roughly 450 defendants on release, and that electronic monitoring keeps many defendants out of jail: "Out of the 60 people we generally have per day on electronic monitoring about 60% are indigent," Bobo said. He estimated the program could exhaust its current funding in August.
Bobo said layoffs of pre-trial officers or drug-testing staff would have cascading effects: returning defendants to jail (at an estimated bed cost the county uses of roughly $150/day), jeopardizing drug-treatment court certifications and related grant funding, and undermining outcomes OCC supports. He requested either a waiver of certain indirect-cost charges or a $195,000 budget adjustment to make OCC whole for 2026; he said the appropriation would make the budget neutral for the year.
Administration suggested a compromise path: allocate available ARPA carryover (about $45,000 after other requests) to stabilize the electronic monitoring program through the near term and return in short order with a plan under the board’s golden-ratio and budget-priorities framework for a more durable 2027 funding solution. The board directed the administrator to bring options back with identified funding sources; commissioners emphasized the need to preserve court treatment programs and avoid rehousing defendants because of a funding gap.
