THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601280149
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Long : 114 lines
About eight of 10 criminals serving time in North Carolina are on probation or parole, which means they're out on the street.
The average probation/parole officer is tasked with supervising 115 of these offenders, making sure they don't do anything that would land them in prison.
It's a challenge.
``It's unbelievable to me that these probation officers are able to do the job that they have been hired to do,'' said Michael M. Furey, program director of a new center designed to help keep track of probationers. ``How can they really supervise 115 people?''
Furey runs the Day Reporting Center for the six-county Albemarle Criminal Justice Partnership Program, formed in July from a state community-based punishment grant.
With a $267,000 annual budget, centers in Elizabeth City and Edenton will serve as clearinghouses where a total of up to 100 probationers regularly check in and receive substance abuse treatment, education and referrals to helpful agencies.
The program's goal is to change more people's lives by easing them out of the criminal justice system rather than rotating them through it.
``For the last 25 years, the country has been fighting a war on crime,'' said Furey, who has eight years' experience in counseling substance abusers and criminal offenders in Florida. ``Are we winning it? If things are getting worse, then we need to take a look at a different avenue.
``Hopefully, we will reduce the number of people who are unable to successfully terminate from probation. If we can reduce the number of people who are being revoked, then we keep those people from going to the state prisons. . . . We keep them in this area, we help them get a job, they become tax-paying citizens.
``Once you put them into prison, what you're doing is giving them their bachelor's degree in crime.''
Right now, the Elizabeth City center, located discreetly in a professional center off Church Street and Hughes Boulevard, is handling about 14 referrals, Furey said. The center, which serves Pasquotank, Currituck and Camden counties, has been open since October.
The Edenton Center should be furnished and staffed within weeks. It will serve Perquimans, Chowan and Gates counties, said Dick George, assistant director of the Albemarle Commission, which is administering the grant.
The Day Reporting Center is only for people who have been sentenced to supervised probation - usually for crimes such as drug possession, drunken driving and burglary, Furey said. Clients, most of whom are likely to have a substance abuse problem, come from the community, not from other parts of the state. Sex offenders and arsonists are not eligible.
``What it's for is people who are already on probation,'' Furey said. ``They live here. They go to school here. They go to church here.''
Furey acknowledges that the center is only one weapon in the fight against crime.
``We definitely need more prison beds. We definitely need more probation officers,'' Furey said. ``There's a lot of people out there who are committing crimes, and they need to be locked up.''
But, he said, ``We've been building prisons as fast as we can, and they're full before they open.''
Placing people behind bars treats only the symptom, not the disease, that leads to crime, Furey said. People need to get over their addictions, he said, and they need the skills required to find a job. Otherwise, convicted criminals don't understand that they have choices.
For the center to work, Furey insists, it must have the support of judges, lawyers, probation officials and the community.
An article in the Oct. 2 issue of the Criminal Justice Newsletter says that nationwide, Day Reporting Centers tend to have high rates of ``termination.'' On average, it says, about half of all participants are dropped because they are charged with new crimes or fail to obey the rules.
``The termination rate will probably be high at first,'' Furey acknowledged. ``Is it going to be 50 percent? Gee, I hope not.''
But he said he hasn't set a numerical goal for how many productive participants would signal success. ``I don't deal in guesses or quotas or any of that,'' Furey said. ``I deal in real-world figures.''
About 35 other counties in North Carolina have started versions of Day Reporting Centers with their share of $12 million in state money allotted for community-based punishment programs this year.
The state's remaining counties have used the money for programs such as expanded substance abuse treatment and community work projects, said Levi Dawson, field services manager for the Criminal Justice Program in the state Department of Corrections.
One challenge for Furey is to get local officials to buy into the Day Reporting Center concept. Some street-level officials have said they are skeptical.
``Anytime you have a new program, there's a certain amount of doubt that goes with it,'' said Roy Daniels, judicial district manager for probation-parole in the 1st District, which includes the six partnership counties and Dare. ``If it's successful in this area, it'll have a very good impact.
``It won't reduce caseload, but it will reduce some of the burden that's been placed'' on probation officers, Daniels said, adding that the Day Reporting Centers will deal with only about 10 percent of probationers in the region.
``It's been a tough job for him to try to get out and sell something new,'' Daniels said. ``But he's done a good job, and it's been well-received at this point.''
Grafton G. Beaman, chief district court judge in the 1st District, said he strongly supports the program and hopes it will keep more probationers out of prison.
Officials said the fledgling program will be open to adjustment as administrators around North Carolina learn from experience.
``We're going to share ideas across the state on what works and what doesn't work,'' Daniels said. ``It's set to be innovative. It's set to be flexible.'' by CNB