TNC
03-29-2004, 10:16 AM
Posted: Friday, Mar 26, 2004 - 08:07:22 am PST
By KEITH KINNAIRD
News editor
Pilot project is not an effort to resume work center debate, department says
SANDPOINT -- The state Department of Correction is preparing to launch a campaign in North Idaho to enhance community safety through education.
If the pilot project proves successful, it will become a model for the rest of the state, according to the department's spokeswoman, Teresa Jones.
"What we really want to create is something that we can take statewide so that we are enhancing public safety in all communities through knowledge and through proactive versus reactive approaches to offender management," said Jones.
The department's director, Tom Beauclair, kicked off the initiative this month with letters to North Idaho lawmakers.
"Our goal is to inform citizens about the role of corrections and the realities of offenders in communities, and identify ways we can work together to enhance community safety," Beauclair wrote in a March 1 letter to legislators.
Beauclair said the focus of the campaign will be on reducing offenders' recidivism risk through community involvement. He points to research which shows neighbors, clergy, family and friends seem to have more influence on changing an offender's behavior than parole and probation officers do.
"Our officers hold offenders accountable, but a community effort is needed to enhance community safety," Beauclair wrote.
A shortage of specifics, however, has some wondering if the department is delicately laying a foundation for another attempt at establishing an inmate work center in North Idaho.
The department tried to establish a community work center in Kootenai County, but abandoned the effort when it ran into bitter opposition. Corrections officials briefly turned their gaze toward Bonner County before opting to focus their energies elsewhere in the penal system.
But the department insists the campaign is not an oblique way of revisiting the work center issue.
"Everybody's mind goes there because that was a huge issue for the community and a very emotional issue," said Jones. "We want to move away from the emotion and move in some facts and say, 'How do we help you?'"
Jones points to research from Georgia that showed for every month of full-time employment, the risk of an offender relapsing decreases by as much as 30 percent.
North Idaho was chosen as the pilot program's starting point partly because of mistrust and misinformation generated during the work center debate two years ago, Jones said.
"We had a level of distrust and we want to build some bridges with that community and build an understanding of what we need to provide and where the community is," said Jones. "We're really trying to work through to make it a community discussion, not a Department of Correction discussion."
There is no proposal on the table for a community work center in North Idaho, though at least one lawmaker is not convinced the discussion won't eventually head that way.
Senator Shawn Keough, a Republican from Sandpoint who has experience in public relations, speculates the department might be "climate-building," to warm people up to the idea of a work center.
By priming the community with information about corrections needs and challenges, it could make the idea of a work center easier to market, she said.
"They'll have had a chance to absorb more information in an atmosphere that's not crisis-driven and maybe a bit more objective, and then maybe they will be more receptive to the idea," said Keough.
By KEITH KINNAIRD
News editor
Pilot project is not an effort to resume work center debate, department says
SANDPOINT -- The state Department of Correction is preparing to launch a campaign in North Idaho to enhance community safety through education.
If the pilot project proves successful, it will become a model for the rest of the state, according to the department's spokeswoman, Teresa Jones.
"What we really want to create is something that we can take statewide so that we are enhancing public safety in all communities through knowledge and through proactive versus reactive approaches to offender management," said Jones.
The department's director, Tom Beauclair, kicked off the initiative this month with letters to North Idaho lawmakers.
"Our goal is to inform citizens about the role of corrections and the realities of offenders in communities, and identify ways we can work together to enhance community safety," Beauclair wrote in a March 1 letter to legislators.
Beauclair said the focus of the campaign will be on reducing offenders' recidivism risk through community involvement. He points to research which shows neighbors, clergy, family and friends seem to have more influence on changing an offender's behavior than parole and probation officers do.
"Our officers hold offenders accountable, but a community effort is needed to enhance community safety," Beauclair wrote.
A shortage of specifics, however, has some wondering if the department is delicately laying a foundation for another attempt at establishing an inmate work center in North Idaho.
The department tried to establish a community work center in Kootenai County, but abandoned the effort when it ran into bitter opposition. Corrections officials briefly turned their gaze toward Bonner County before opting to focus their energies elsewhere in the penal system.
But the department insists the campaign is not an oblique way of revisiting the work center issue.
"Everybody's mind goes there because that was a huge issue for the community and a very emotional issue," said Jones. "We want to move away from the emotion and move in some facts and say, 'How do we help you?'"
Jones points to research from Georgia that showed for every month of full-time employment, the risk of an offender relapsing decreases by as much as 30 percent.
North Idaho was chosen as the pilot program's starting point partly because of mistrust and misinformation generated during the work center debate two years ago, Jones said.
"We had a level of distrust and we want to build some bridges with that community and build an understanding of what we need to provide and where the community is," said Jones. "We're really trying to work through to make it a community discussion, not a Department of Correction discussion."
There is no proposal on the table for a community work center in North Idaho, though at least one lawmaker is not convinced the discussion won't eventually head that way.
Senator Shawn Keough, a Republican from Sandpoint who has experience in public relations, speculates the department might be "climate-building," to warm people up to the idea of a work center.
By priming the community with information about corrections needs and challenges, it could make the idea of a work center easier to market, she said.
"They'll have had a chance to absorb more information in an atmosphere that's not crisis-driven and maybe a bit more objective, and then maybe they will be more receptive to the idea," said Keough.