ComCor, Inc. contracted with El Paso County and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, from 1984 until December 31, 2006, to provide residential housing for offenders serving a work release sentence in El Paso County. ComCor has provided residential housing for as few as 25 per day in 1984 to as many as 286, on November 20, 1999. Due to county budget constraints, the contract to house work release inmates at ComCor has fluctuated from 100 to 250 per day over the past several years. ComCor was always willing to work with the Sheriff’s Office, and often provided housing for additional work release inmates over and above the contracted amount, to help alleviate inmate crowding in the jails.
During County budget negotiations in 2006, it was determined that the county needed to cut approximately $7.2 Million from the initial spending plan submitted by the various county agencies, including the Sheriff’s Office. Although Sheriff Maketa agreed that Work Release serves as a viable sentencing option for judges, his only option for cutting his budget was to end his Work Release Program, thereby saving the county approximately $700,000 in 2007. The County Commissioners agreed with that cut and the Custodial Work Release program was terminated December 31, 2006.
Following the termination of the custodial Work Release program, by the Sheriff’s Office, ComCor offered to provide a Non-Custodial Work Release program as a sentencing option for 4th Judicial District Judges. This program also allowed judges to reconsider sentences they had already made to the Custodial Work Release program and re-sentence offenders to serve the remainder of their Work Release sentence in the Non-Custodial Work Release program. In order to accommodate tracking concerns expressed by some judges, ComCor offered to monitor these offenders via a Global Positioning System (GPS). The Non-Custodial Work Release program would be totally funded by offenders paying a daily fee of $20 for the service. In January 2007, there were 49 offenders sentenced to the Non-Custodial Work Release program.
Judges in the 4th Judicial District continued to voice there disagreement with terminating the Custodial Work Release program, as it had allowed offenders to be sentenced and still maintain their employment and family support, while serving their sentence. Sheriff Maketa also continued to be a strong supporter of a Work Release program because it allows offenders to be a productive member of society.
In late February, 2007, Sheriff Maketa made a decision to place a 12,000 sq ft tent in the parking lot of the Criminal Justice Center, where he could provide housing for up to 200 low risk inmates, including work release sentenced offenders, thereby, alleviating crowding conditions in the Criminal Justice Center. Sheriff Maketa and ComCor worked together to re-activate a Work Release Program, in which the offenders would serve 75% of their sentence in the Sheriff’s Custodial Work Release program and be housed in the “Tent Jail”. The remaining 25% of their sentence would be spent in ComCor’s Non-Custodial Work Release Program, where each offender would be provided Case Management by ComCor’s Non-Residential program staff and additional monitoring via electronic means.
For offenders to be sentenced to this new Work Release program, Judges had to agree that offenders would serve 75% of their sentence in the Sheriff’s program and the remaining 25% in ComCor’s Non-Custodial Work Release program. For the offender to transfer from the Sheriff’s program to ComCor’s program, they had to be employed, pay a $60 fee in advance, and begin paying the daily subsistence fee of $20 immediately. Those offenders unable to pay the advance fee will be required to serve the remainder of their sentence as “straight time” in the jail.
Judges also have the option of sentencing Work Release eligible individuals directly to ComCor’s Non-Residential programs. The offenders have to be employed, comply with the judges’ orders, are required to pay $200 upon entry into the program, and begin to pay the subsistence fee of $17 per day immediately. The $200 advanced fee is applied to the last 10 days of the sentence.
The “new” Work Release program began in mid April, 2007, when only 11 offenders were ordered to begin serving 75% of their sentence in custody of the Sheriff. By the end of May 2007, that number had increased to nearly 100. ComCor began receiving offenders from this new program on May 14, 2007. It is anticipated that the number of offenders serving the last 25% of their sentence in ComCor’s Non-Custodial Work Release program will continue to increase as 4th Judicial District Judges become more familiar with the program. |
