LAKEPORT — The Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) Tuesday renewed an agreement with B.I. Inc. and the Probation Department for operating a day reporting center (DRC) for the 2012-13 fiscal year.
Chief Probation Officer Rob Howe said he renegotiated the agreement, which was approved in September, and lowered the cost.
Howe said the current contract costs $756,000 per year, or $63,000 per month. He said B.I. agreed to lower their costs to $53,000 per month, saving the county $120,000 for the fiscal year.
Howe said the DRC opened on Nov. 21 and continues to operate. He said the goal of the DRC was to reduce recidivism and the cost of incarcerating inmates as a result of the state”s prison realignment. As many as 18 other counties in California are using B.I. for similar services, according to Howe.
The DRC offers programs that provide educational and employment opportunities to mid- to high-level offenders, with the goal of keeping them from re-offending, according to Howe.
While the facility is running normally, with 48 active participants out of a possible 50 and many existing referrals to the programs, Howe expressed a desire to utilize Lake County organizations for the facility.
“We want to see that money earmarked for local resources,” Howe said.
He said he met with representatives of Hilltop Recovery Services, which provides alcohol and substance abuse services, about expanding to provide a DRC and its programs.
“They operate a residential facility that provides similar programs,” Howe said.
He suggested taking the renegotiated savings from the B.I. agreement and giving them to a potential Lake County DRC provider.
“We can move to support them and help them build up resources to handle this in the future,” Howe said, adding the representatives said they could have a DRC up and running in about three months.
Lori Carter-Runyon, executive director for Hilltop, said the facility works with a similar population and is connected to many other county service providers.
“We”re very willing to do what we can to develop a program and meet the needs of the community for those returning to the community,” Carter-Runyon said.
District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington said he appreciated the work to bring this contract to a Lake County provider. Farrington also asked for quarterly reports on B.I.”s DRC operations to the BOS.
District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing said she wanted to see reports of progress from the programs, which Howe said are unknown at this point. “We need time to look at the success rate to evaluate,” he said. “This is the unknown. Recidivism is hard to define.”
The supervisors unanimously approved the agreement. The BOS did not provide direction on using Hilltop Recovery Services for the DRC for the 2013-14 fiscal year.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14. Follow on Twitter: @KevinNHume.
