WARSAW — With final county approval, Kosciusko County’s Community Corrections program will be applying for more than a half million dollars to help fund its ongoing efforts to rehabilitate offenders and relieve jail crowding.

Anna Bailey, the director for the county program, spoke before the county council Thursday night, Jan. 10 and said the program is growing and in need of the additional funding.

“The good thing with all that is that since June of 2016 we have saved the state and the county about $5.68 million,” Bailey said. “It costs about $52.61 per day to house an inmate and juveniles cost even more.”

Bailey appeared before the council, following a similar appearance before the county’s commissioners to request approval for her to apply for a state grant of $541,000. Following Thursday’s meeting, Bailey has the go-ahead from both bodies.

“We expect to have 150 to 250 in the program by the end of next year,” she said.

According to Bailey, the program has applied for — and received — more than $365,000 in each of the past three years. She said she would be crafting a grant request that will include an additional $184,500 to cover various expenses, including two additional staff members.

Bailey said if the grant is received, she hopes to add a drug court case manager, as well as a home detention officer to her staff.

“The department and the programs themselves just continue to grow,” she said. “We have an 85 percent success rate, which is very high since the state average is about 65 to 70 percent. Our recidivism is very low.”

The Community Corrections Program provides alternatives to serving jail sentences behind bars for certain offenders.

“It helps the county out and it helps keep some people out of the Indiana Department of Corrections,” Bailey said.

Bailey said the program currently has 102 people in the program, “and I think we have three people getting hooked up today.”

In other business, the council heard requests for additional appropriations for:

• Ann Torpy, Kosciusko Clerk of Circuit and Superior Courts — Computer Maintenance, $27,000.
• Bob Weaver, County Health Department — Personal Health Care Supplies, $17,858.
• Sheriff Kyle Dukes — JCAP, $67,521.25.
• County Administrator Marsha McSherry — Wellness program, $24,520.
• Ed Rock, Emergency Management — SHSP, $111,654.
• County Auditor Michelle Puckett — Fire District 2, $56,435.61

The council heard a presentation from Alan Tio of the Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation and also heard a DNR grant request from Dukes for $15,000 and approved a salary ordinance request from Judge David Cates.