By Alison Bunting
tribune correspondent
KEYSER — Nearly three years in the running, the Mineral County Day Report Center is growing in leaps and bounds, all the while providing manpower for community service organizations.
Just as important, the center saves the county money.
Instead of sentencing non-violent offenders to serve time in jail, the report center provides an alternative. Clients can pay their debt to society by doing community service work as well as enrolling in rehabilitation classes at the center.
“This is better than jail,” said director Tara Hockaday. “When they're in jail, they're surrounded with criminals and that's what they learn.”
The report center offers offenders a chance to see what it's like to work in the community and learn what it would take for them to return to society, Hockaday said
Problem is, the number of referrals is increasing tremendously. According to Hockaday, the facility has had around 140 clients just for the Day Report Center and 225 clients for community service.
“If we have a waiting list, it's not going to help our clients,” Hockaday said.
The Day Report Center began operations in November 2006 with an office in the Mineral County Detention Center on East Street.
In February this year, the center moved to the Kirkwood & Rogers building across from the courthouse on Armstrong Street, which provides classrooms as well as office space.
Still, it's not enough.
Jim Lee, chairman of the Community Corrections Subcommittee in Charlseton, according to Hockaday, visited the Keyser facility recently and noted the need for more space.
“He actually said we need a bigger location, which we already knew,” she said.
Hockaday said she has documentation that proves the Day Report Center has saved taxpayers $1 million over its three years of operation, taking into account that it would have cost the county about $48.50 per inmate per day for housing in the Potomac Highlands Regional Jail.
Sheriff Craig Fraley said the center is a “great idea” and saves the sheriff's department money by shifting the overseeing of the community service workers to the Day Report Center. Otherwise, this would have to be done by deputies.
Fraley said it's also a better chance for offenders to change for the better.
“The regional jail does not have the intense counseling that we have here. If they're given the opportunity to clean up their act and go out and do this work they may (later) go out and make some money for it,” he said.
Brian Duckworth, one of four full-time staffers, is the assistant director and counselor at the Day Report Center.
“Our job is to pinpoint what the risk factors are, then target this in their treatment,” he said. Classes might include counseling in drug or alcohol abuse, anger management, or “pretty much the whole gamut of things that could lead to getting them in that situation again.”
The Mineral County Day Report Center has been funded in part by grants.
In the first year, they received $15,000 from the West Virginia Community Corrections Fund and $25,000 from the West Virginia Attorney General's Office.
The second year brought $59,000 from W.Va. Corrections and $50,000 from the attorney gneral, and the third year, $196,312 from W.Va. Corrections.
For the current year, the center received an additional $150,000 from W.Va. Community Corrections.
Fraley said the report center also derives income from enrollment fees from its clients.
