History
The Allegany County Sheriff’s Office initiated the Alternative Sentencing Program in December of 1993 with its Adult Community Service Program. With the success of the Adult Community Service program, the Judicial Division was later expanded to include the Pre-Trial Diversion Program and has recently begun an Electronic Home Detention Program. All of the programs and services provided by the Judicial Divisions programs are designed to provide the courts with sentencing options, which help to relieve the current nationwide problem of jail overcrowding, while providing the citizens with much needed assistance with community service hours that the individuals are assigned by the court.

Program Overview
The beginning program in the Judicial Division, since the programs starts its objectives have been to:


Provide the Judges of the courts with an alternative to physical incarceration.

• Supply much needed labor to Non-Profit Organizations.

• Provide a proven rehabilitation tool.

• Provide a punishment to defendants of a crime, who normally would otherwise go virtually unpunished.

The program receives referrals of defendants which have been assigned court ordered community service hours. These referrals are non violent offenders and are not deemed as a threat the the general public. Each defendant is interviewed, screened, and placed at one of the various work sites throughout Allegany County and the surrounding areas, under the supervision of personnel from the assigned work site. Hard to place referrals are assigned to the Sheriff’s Office Alternative Sentencing Work Crew, which is supervised by a certified correctional officer under a grant. Correctional Officer Dan Lasher oversees the work crew, and currently schedules the locations that the crew works at through out the week and on weekends.


Results of the Program
The Adult Community Service Program, since its inception, has dealt with over 5,280 offenders. In addition, the program has provided over $1,011,258.00 worth of labor and saved Allegany County over $4,858,718.00, due to the 103,501 days of incarceration which were suspended, helping to relieve overcrowding within the Allegany County Detention Center. Over 89%, of the 5,280 offenders, who have entered the program, 4,697 have successfully completed their community service. To date, the judges, from the courts within Allegany County have assigned more than 253,572 hours of community service and more than 209,155 of these hours have been subsequently completed.

The programs success led to its expansion into the Judicial Division, by implementing the Pre-Trial Diversion Program, the Home Detention Program and most recently the Inmate Work Crew. All of these programs have also been very successful in rehabilitating offenders, while saving Allegany County money, by allowing the offender to benefit the community by service to the community. The future holds plans for Pre-Trial Release, as well as, Urinalysis Drug and Alcohol Screening Programs.
 

History
The Sheriff’s Office initiated the Pre-Trial Diversion program in September of 1995, following the success of the Adult Community Service Program. The operating procedures utilized by the Pre-Trial Program have been developed in coordination with Allegany County State’s Attorney, Lawrence V. Kelly. The program also obtained input from the Allegany County Substance Abuse Coalition, as well as, from Judge Paul Stakem , Allegany County District Court, on the implementation of the program with in the county.

Program Overview
The Pre-Trial Program targets first time offenders in minor property crimes, controlled substance cases involving possession, and domestic matters, in which substance abuse may be an underlying factor. Other cases will be targeted when there is no history of substance abuse treatment. Clients of the program, through the cooperation of the Western Maryland Consortium, may now earn a high school diploma by completing the General Education Diploma (G.E.D.) program.

The primary goal of this program in to reduce the case load of the Allegany County District Court System by diverting cases to substance abuse treatment programs. The clients that are diverted will obtain treatment which will help to prevent their reentry into the criminal justice system.

Results of the Program
Since its inception, the Pre-Trial Diversion Program has supervised over 2,000 cases. Of the 1,850 offenders who have completed the program, 83% have done so successfully. Of the 2,000 cases, 1,653 (82%) were involved in community service activities and have completed a total of 31,191 hours.

In addition, 254 (13%) of the 2,000 clients were involved in treatment/educational activities, including but not limited to the Financial Management Seminar. The remaining 5% of the 2,000 cases were involved in no contact orders and paying restitution. To date, $17,769.20 in restitution funds has been collected.

Demographically, 70% of the Diversion clients are male, 30% are female. Likewise, 34% of the clients attend college, 54% graduated from high school with no college, and 12% failed to graduate from high school.

In the past, Pre-Trial Diversion cases represented approximately 50% of the Alternative Sentencing Division’s caseload. Recently, however, Pre-Trial cases have been on the rise and now represent 60% of the Division’s caseload.


 

History
The Allegany County Sheriff’s Office initiated the Alternative Sentencing Work Crew in 1994, under the supervision of a certified Correctional Officer, assigned to the Alternative Sentencing Program, through a grant from the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention, under which a portion of the funds are provided by Allegany County.

Program Overview
The work crew was formed for a number of reason to benefit the county, community, and the defendant. The nationwide dilemma of prison overcrowding and the ever rising cost of incarceration did not pass by our rural Appalachian county. The court system needed an alternative to physical incarceration and the Alternative Sentencing Program was initiated in Allegany County. The work crew allows defendants, which are classified as hard to place, under direct supervision during the completion of the court ordered community service hours.

Results of the Program
The Alternative Sentencing Work Crew is virtually limitless in the work they perform. Over the past years, the work crew has been instrumental in assisting with the cleanup efforts after natural disasters which have struck our area. The work crew also placed nearly 1,000 new street signs throughout the county, as well as having painted schools and other public buildings. The work crew started a program, in cooperation with the City of Cumberland, in which they are used to assist in the clean up of abandoned properties to help improve the neighborhoods within the city. The work crew has also been very involved with Flood Mitigation work in cooperation with Allegany County Public Works, which involves cleaning flooded houses and properties from overrun streams and run-off damage. Also, extracting and cutting up trees from stream beds throughout Allegany County has been a large part of flood mitigation “prevention work.” Often the work crew performs simple tasks, such as removing trash from along the highway, to cleaning up illegal dump sites around the county.

This program is designed to help eliminate the jail overcrowding problem facing Allegany County, while providing valuable assistance to various organizations throughout the area. This program has saved the taxpayers of Allegany County $5,869,976.00 since its inception and will continue to do so for years to come.


 

History
The Alternative Sentencing Division initiated the Home Detention Program in October of 1998. The program was formulated in a way that combined the strengths of many of Maryland's most successful home detention operations. To accomplish this objective, members of the Alternative Sentencing Division visited with agencies throughout the state and consulted leading companies in the electronic monitoring industry. Those that were most helpful include the Washington County Sheriff's Office, Wicomico County Sheriff's Office, Frederick County Sheriff's Office and Boulder Industries of Boulder, Colorado. The Alternative Sentencing Division's Home Detention Program is supervised by Chapin A. Jewell.

Program Overview
With the assistance of many organizations, the Alternative Sentencing Division was able to formulate a home detention program that would be successful at accomplishing the following objectives: 1) eliminating crowded conditions at the Detention Center to allow for the incarceration of more dangerous offenders, 2) enable the offender to provide financial and other support for his/her household, 3) provide local judges with viable sentencing alternatives, 4) increase county revenues through client fee collection and reduce county expenses by eliminating the costs of incarcerating the offender. Clients are recommended for participation in the programby their sentencing judge and a classification team decides whether the client is acceptable for the program. Monitoring of clients is accomplished through the use of sophisticated electronic equipment. Clients are allowed to attend work, school, medical and legal appointments only. Clients are tested on a regular basis for alcohol and drug violations.

Results of the Program
Beginning with 3 clients in its first month of operation, the program has now had 155 participants. The successful completion rate is at 96% with only 5 violations recorded. In addition, the program has collected $85,447.56 in client fees and saved the county $515,169.00 in suspended jail days. October of 2001 represents the single busiest month on record with 20 clients participating and a total of $5,690.00 in client fees collected. To date, the program has been very successful at accomplishing its objectives and if recent statistics are a good indicator, this trend will continue.

Contact Information
14300 McMullen Highway, S.W.
Cresaptown, Maryland 21502
Voice: 301-729-4132
Fax: 301-729-2496
Email: cjewell@allconet.org