Work plentiful for WEC offenders

Friday, August 11, 2006

Almost $1 million has been estimated in cost savings to agencies in the area, due to work done by road crews from McCook's Work Ethic Camp, Raleigh Haas said at the WEC Community Involvement meeting Thursday.

According to recent demographic statistics, as of July, a total of $981,235 has been saved since 2001, using the $5.15 minimum wage, with 190,531 hours put in since that time. Working for non-profit and governmental agencies within the region, work crews have clocked in a total of 2,393 hours for the month of July, with 29 organizations assisted last month.

"People would ask me, aren't you afraid of running out of work to do out there," Haas related. "That obviously hasn't been a problem."

Haas also spoke about results from the June 8 meeting staff had with probation officers/administrators from across the state, that addressed barriers preventing more referrals to the WEC.

Probation right now is focused on substance abuse treatment programs for offenders, he said. Haas attended the meeting with WEC Program Director Phil Meyers. Other findings included that the WEC is mistakenly viewed as for juvenile offenders only and that judges are reluctant to send offenders who are employed.

Exactly what kind of employment that is can be debated, Haas said. An offender with a spotty work record who works a couple hours a week every now and then is different from one with a long-term employment history, he contended.

Overall, he and Meyers called the meeting a success, with probation administrators willing to take another look at the WEC and to identify more offenders who would qualify.

Meyers also described the Reward and Trust programs, with the number of offenders participating steadily increasing.

Those in Phases 2-4 that meet the criteria are eligible to participate in the Reward program, which gives offenders extra privileges in mail, visiting times and phone calls. Supervised trips to the YMCA are also included in the program.

Only offenders with high "feedback scores" -- scores based on the offender's attitude and conduct within the facility and show no record of misconduct -- are considered, Meyer said.

"This provides positive incentive for them," he said, with 50 percent of the offenders enrolled in the program.

The Trust program involves selected work crew members in their last phase who have no misconduct on their record, allowed to work minimally supervised in various city and state departments. These offenders "have to have a pretty good record" to qualify for this program, Meyer said, with 14 currently participating at such agencies like the Humane Society and Department of Roads.

The WEC currently houses 70 inmates, with 52 males and 18 females. A total of 1,198 inmates have been admitted to the facility since 2001, with 942 successfully completing the program.

Douglas County in Omaha has had the highest amount of admissions, at 258, followed by Lancaster county in Lincoln with 116 and Hall county in Grand Island at 79. Red Willow County has had 29 admissions.

Other inmate population statistics include:

Age: average was 23, with 1,012 males and 186 females. Race: Caucasian: 914; African American: 163; Hispanic: 79; Native American: 22; Asian American: 11, Other: 9. Offenses: Theft, burglary robbery: 511; drug offenses: 469; financial offenses (forgery/insufficient funds): 70; assault: 44; criminal mischief: 35; other-accessory, arson, etc.: 69; multiple offenses: 263

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