Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 15, 1995 TAG: 9501160010
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-19 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The Home Confinement Program started in March 1994 as part of the Family Resource Team of the Court Services Unit that serves Montgomery and Pulaski counties and Radford.
The program - directed by court services workers who train college students and other volunteers - gives judges a less costly alternative to placing teen offenders in the New River Valley Juvenile Detention Home in Christiansburg.
Program volunteers monitor the teen-agers through daily home visits and phone calls. It costs less than $5 a day per child to fund the program, compared with $50 a day for the detention home.
The Home Confinement Program started last March. In six months, it had saved taxpayers more than $29,020. The program is available for as many as four youths in Montgomery County and Radford and two youths in Pulaski County. If six beds in the detention home were freed up throughout the year, the program would save $109,500, program officials say.
"It's a good buy," said Paul Little, supervisor of the local Court Services Unit.
The program's grant from the state Department of Criminal Justice Services expires June 30. Little and other staff members hope they can persuade New River Valley localities to continue funding half the program, with the department providing matching funds.
But Gov. George Allen's proposed budget doesn't include money for Montgomery County's Family Resource Team, said its coordinator, Jennifer Gill, meaning the entire community-based juvenile rehabilitation program is in jeopardy unless other funding can be found.
From March to November 1994, 12 teens were assigned to the program after being charged with a total of 29 offenses ranging from simple assaults to theft and bomb threats. Only one committed a new offense after completing the program.
"Billy," who asked that his real name not be used, was one of the 12. He was 17 when Judge Patrick Graybeal ordered him into the program after he was charged with assault.
"These charges were the first time I've been up here for anything except traffic violations," Billy said last month during an interview at Little's office.
He spent seven days in the detention home after conviction on his first assault charge. Then the judge gave him the chance to enter the Home Confinement Program.
Little, who supervised Billy, called his home and school to make sure he was there and dropped in unannounced for home visits. Volunteers working with other teens do the same.
"Volunteers actually sit down and have conversations with the family ... and we're able to learn a lot from those contacts. We're aware on a day-to-day basis how the child's doing," Little said.
Little said the Court Services Unit acts quickly if the child is violating the rules - bringing the offense to the attention of the judge, who may decide to put the child back into the detention home.
Billy found that out when he was taken off the home program for violations. He spent another month at the detention home before having the chance to enter the program again.
"The first time I was put on it, I tried to find ways to get out of it. At first, it was annoying because they called me at work, at school, at home," he said. "Just different days - you never knew. It'd never be the same day, either."
"The randomness is to keep people honest," Little said.
After spending the month back at the juvenile facility, Billy took to heart a lecture the judge gave him.
"I have the keys to my future, and whichever way I wanted to turn them was up to me," Billy recalled the judge telling him. "I figured being at home not going anywhere is better than being over there."
by CNB