If you do the crime, you’ll probably do the time – but not necessarily behind bars.
Instead of taking up valuable space in the Snohomish County Jail, you might be required to participate in work crews that perform some service to the county.
Under a program about to go to the Snohomish County Council, it’s also more likely that you will serve your jail sentence at home, monitored by an electronic leash, if you’re a nonviolent offender, pass a rigid risk assessment and get the blessing of a judge.
And don’t even think about skipping court-ordered anger management or drug and alcohol counseling, because there will be little chance of that under the new plan.
The prospect of work crews, electronic home monitoring, daily reporting for work or treatment is about to grow under the plan that was devised by a judge, deputy prosecutor and head of the county corrections department.
“We’ve got to try something different,” said Mark Roe, chief criminal deputy prosecutor.
The county spends far too much on its criminal justice system – about two-thirds of the general budget or $113 million a year – and will have to spend more later this year with the addition of 640 beds in the expanded jail, Roe said.
Steve Thompson, Snohomish County corrections director, said the plan borrows from other successful sentencing alternatives around the country.
Work crews will give some labor back to the county. And making sure the convicted get treatment such as anger management counseling while they’re serving their sentences might decrease the chances of recidivism, corrections officials say.
Too many nonviolent felons and people now facing misdemeanor charges don’t comply with court-ordered treatment when they are released from the jail. Ensuring that they get treatment saves the courts from issuing arrest warrants and helps curb future incarcerations.
“We believe this is a first step in providing alternatives that better serve a specific group of nonviolent offenders who may not need to be in secure confinement,” said Jim Harms, community corrections commander.
The county already has work crews picking up litter from roadsides, and it has work-release and some home detention. Under the plan, those programs would be expanded.
There may not be a lot of savings at first, but keeping people from returning to jail should save money in the long run, Harms said.
“We’re not doing this just to get people out of detention. We want to change their behavior through programming, and change their offender behavior,” he said.
Thomas Wynne, presiding Snohomish County Superior Court judge, said the combination of work crews and home detention appeals to the judges, although the courts would start using their new authority slowly.
“The idea is to deal with recidivism by dealing with issues that brought them here in the first place,” Wynne said. “It just gives judges an additional option, more flexibility in sentencing.”
If the County Council approves the program, Wynne said the target starting date is Oct. 1. County human services personnel and private agencies will be called in to provide the treatment.
The proposal will go from Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon’s office to the County Council early this week, said Susan Neely, who oversees criminal justice matters for the executive.
Is it a good deal?
“I think everyone is extremely cautious about it, and there’s a feeling about not wanting to oversell it. But we think it could work,” Neely said. “The impetus came from the courts, corrections and the prosecutor, but it is something Aaron is extremely supportive of.”
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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