Commcorr seeks citizen advisers

MONTROSE — Citizens concerned about the location of a future community corrections facility have something its local board of directors want: Input.

The board is actively seeking four citizens for its Neighborhood Advisory Committee, to help guide and develop a community corrections facility in Montrose.

“Of all the volunteer work I’ve done, this has been the most rewarding,” David Laird, a citizen member of the Seventh Judicial Community Corrections board said Tuesday after a press conference. Laird, with District Judge James Schum, will be a board representative on the NAC.

He said community corrections — an incarceration program for nonviolent felony offenders — teaches inmates to turn their lives around and positions them to give back to the communities they took so much from as the result of criminal activity.

Plans are in the works to construct a commcorr facility near the Montrose County Justice Center and work release building. Montrose County is still hammering out zoning issues with the city of Montrose, Commissioner Allan Belt said.

“First and foremost, this is a wonderful cog in the transition to a productive life,” he said of commcorr programs.

A previous attempt to locate a commcorr in the former Region 10 building on North Cascade Avenue prompted neighborhood outcry and the lease agreement between Region 10 and Intervention Community Corrections Services fell through.

Carrol Warner, chief probation officer in Montrose, said the advisory committee was being formed to reduce community concern about the facility.

Both she and several other members of the board said a commcorr facility locally would be a benefit.

The facility would increase bed space statewide, where there are now about 3,000 residential beds in 33 facilities. Having one in Montrose would also cut down on transportation costs, stress on local sheriffs’ manpower, and could also better serve noncriminal mental health and detoxification needs.

Delta County Sheriff Fred McKee said that now, when an offender in his jurisdiction is sentenced to commcorr, his department is responsible for transportation, usually to Meeker, Colorado Springs or Alamosa. If the inmate violates the conditions of his sentence, the sheriff is again responsible for transporting him or her back to Delta for re-sentencing and, from there, to prison.

“Transportation is an issue,” he said. “We’d love to see it (commcorr) right here in the Seventh Judicial District.”

Montrose County Sheriff Rick Dunlap said commcorr could also help with people who are in need of detox services but have not broken the law. “We come in contact with people who are inebriated. They haven’t committed a crime, but if we leave them at the scene, it could develop into something more serious.”

At present, he must either send such people to Grand Junction’s detox or hold them in the jail facility until their condition is stable enough for their release. This also takes up staff time.

Health officials later said the same situation was true of people in need of mental health care, but who do not always qualify for commitment at a psychiatric facility. “What we see is having beds available (in Montrose) so those folks...can be voluntarily held in a bed with our staff being able to supervise them,” said John Gordon, executive director of the Center for Mental Health.

Other board members addressed misconceptions about commcorr.

“This is not a ‘soft on crime’ program,” Deputy District Attorney Jerry Montgomery said. “This is not freedom to the offender.”

Rather, he said, commcorr causes an offender to be punished with the loss of freedom, while allowing him or her to earn money for court-ordered restitution to victims and taxpayers. No similar opportunity exists in the Department of Corrections.

Warner said 62 percent of commcorr placements are successful. Of those that fail, only 1 percent do so as the result of an offender committing a new crime.

“The clients who go there are not much different than the probationers we have living out there in the community,” public defender Harvey Palefsky said, also citing the skills commcorr teaches offenders, especially young offenders.

Palefsky said the continuity with families commcorr makes possible is critical, especially for children who lose their parents to prison sentences.

Warner stressed the importance of community involvement with commcorr, and also introduced the board’s new coordinator, Stephanie Tolen.

“The process is very new to this board,” Warnter said. “We’re attempting to be proactive and involve this community.”

Anyone interested in serving on the Neighborhood Advisory Committee can contact Warner at 252-4305 or stop by the probation department for an application. The probation department is on the second floor of the Justice Center.

Contact Kathahrynn Heidelberg via e-mail at kathahrynnh@montrosepress.com