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GIRARD —
Mac Young, administrative director for 11th Judicial District Community Corrections, presented his year-end report during the Tuesday Crawford County Commission meeting.
Goal of Community Corrections is to implement and/or maintain practices that will contribute to an offender’s successful completion of supervised probation.
Community Corrections uses the Thinking for a Change (T4C) curriculum, an integrated, cognitive behavioral change program for offenders that includes cognitive restructuring, social skills development and development of problem solving skills.
“We were fortunate to keep that going,” Young said. “We have a pre-contemplation group for offenders to get them ready to go into the Thinking for a Change group.”
He added that there is also an “alumni” group in which past T4C participants come back and share with the current group.
“That’s quite refreshing,” Young said. “Usually they’re very proud, and that’s good to see.”
A new program has also been added.
“This is a re-engagement program,” Young said. “When an offender absconds and we get them back, we sit down and ask them why they went off, what we can do to help them be successful.”
Education and employment are goals for the program, and offenders who do are not high school graduates are urged to get their GED.
“If they pass the GED exam, we’ll pay the fee,” he said.
There were 68 fully discharged clients from the program this fiscal year, and 25 of them had less than a high school equivalent diploma at entry. A total of 18 still had less than their high school equivalent.
Of the 68 discharged, 38 were employed. The remaining 30 included 11 who were disabled, two who were retired and two who were full-time students, as well as 10 unemployed and others who were in prison or whose cases had been terminated.
Young said that the agency ended fiscal year 2012 with a success rate of 69.2 percent, compared to a statewide average of 66.3 percent.
“We will need to increase our percentage of successful completion to meet legislative standards,” he said.
Young added that the agency, which had been down a position in Labette County, is now fully staffed.
“We have good staff there on the front line,” he said.
“Considering these economic times, you’ve done pretty well,” commissioner Bob Kmiec said.
Commissioners also heard a report from Tom Ragonese, special projects coordinator, about county employee health insurance and implementation of a wellness program.
Mac Young, administrative director for 11th Judicial District Community Corrections, presented his year-end report during the Tuesday Crawford County Commission meeting.
Goal of Community Corrections is to implement and/or maintain practices that will contribute to an offender’s successful completion of supervised probation.
Community Corrections uses the Thinking for a Change (T4C) curriculum, an integrated, cognitive behavioral change program for offenders that includes cognitive restructuring, social skills development and development of problem solving skills.
“We were fortunate to keep that going,” Young said. “We have a pre-contemplation group for offenders to get them ready to go into the Thinking for a Change group.”
He added that there is also an “alumni” group in which past T4C participants come back and share with the current group.
“That’s quite refreshing,” Young said. “Usually they’re very proud, and that’s good to see.”
A new program has also been added.
“This is a re-engagement program,” Young said. “When an offender absconds and we get them back, we sit down and ask them why they went off, what we can do to help them be successful.”
Education and employment are goals for the program, and offenders who do are not high school graduates are urged to get their GED.
“If they pass the GED exam, we’ll pay the fee,” he said.
There were 68 fully discharged clients from the program this fiscal year, and 25 of them had less than a high school equivalent diploma at entry. A total of 18 still had less than their high school equivalent.
Of the 68 discharged, 38 were employed. The remaining 30 included 11 who were disabled, two who were retired and two who were full-time students, as well as 10 unemployed and others who were in prison or whose cases had been terminated.
Young said that the agency ended fiscal year 2012 with a success rate of 69.2 percent, compared to a statewide average of 66.3 percent.
“We will need to increase our percentage of successful completion to meet legislative standards,” he said.
Young added that the agency, which had been down a position in Labette County, is now fully staffed.
“We have good staff there on the front line,” he said.
“Considering these economic times, you’ve done pretty well,” commissioner Bob Kmiec said.
Commissioners also heard a report from Tom Ragonese, special projects coordinator, about county employee health insurance and implementation of a wellness program.
“We’re pretty much agreed on Blue Cross Blue Shield, the same insurance basically that we had before with a little higher stop-loss,” he said. “For dental insurance, we’ve renewed with MetLife. Last year we switched from Delta Dental to MetLife and the savings were substantial.”
However, he noted that Aflack, another company the county works with, now offers dental insurance.
“I think next year we need to look at that again and go out for bids,” Ragonese said.
As for the wellness program, he said that Janis Goedeke, county health officer, has been working on an online program with an insurance provider.
“She’s going to do a trial run with her group to see if it takes 15 minutes per person or an hour per person,” Ragonese said. “She’ll need Wi-Fi for this so the courthouse can be one site. The Judicial Center can be another site for employees in Pittsburg.”
During the process, employees are interviewed and information gathered on their blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.
“We hope to get this done by the end of the year, and maybe next year we could do it at the benefits fair,” Ragonese said.
He said that if employees get in better health, they should need to visit the doctor less and eventually there will be fewer health insurance claims.
“If they can prevent someone from having a heart attack by giving them blood pressure pills and avoiding a $100,000 bill, there’s your savings,” commissioner Carl Wood said.
Ragonese added that the Crawford County Health Department isn’t being promoted strongly enough to county employees.
“Janis is making a list now of the things she can do free or at low charge,” he said.
In the announcements, Wood announced that the Crawford County Courthouse will be closed Oct. 8 in observance of Columbus Day and there will be no commission meeting on Oct. 9.
