By Kelly Doran
Sun staff
Ohio’s first Community Alternative Sentencing Center may be under new leadership soon, as the county is putting out a request for proposals.
CASC, located at the Clermont County Jail, has been providing non-violent adults that are not felons with addiction treatment, prompted by the heroin epidemic, said Stephen Rabolt, county administrator.
Talbert House has been running CASC since it opened in August 2013, said Kathleen Williams, communications coordinator for the county. Talbert House could be selected again if the organization submits a proposal.
Talbert’s current contract is up on Feb. 11, Williams said. It was extended for six months in August.
Overall, CASC has been a great program so far, Commissioner David Uible said. He also said that Talbert House has done well running the program.
“It was a learning curve for us as a county when we brought in the first vendor and it was the first of it’s kind in Ohio so it was kind of trial and error,” Uible said.
This was the county’s opportunity to seek new proposals, Rabolt said. This is not a reflection on the way Talbert has run the center, but the county wants to make operational changes.
When an organization issues a request for proposals, included is a defined scope of service, Williams said. Since the first request for proposals in 2012, the commissioners have changed the scope of service.
It was clear that the inmates in CASC had severe substance abuse and mental health issues, so the new scope of service includes a more intensive drug treatment and mental health services, Williams said.
Proposals are due no later than 2 p.m. on Feb. 5, Williams said. The next provider will probably be selected the second or third week of February.
The county spends 69 cents of every dollar of the general fund budget on criminal justice, which makes for a safe county, Uible said. The heroin epidemic has hit Clermont as hard as any other county in the state.
“Not only were we able to provide training and life skills and behavior modification to that population of people that were non-violent and had this addictive personality but we were able to do it at a almost a 20-25 percent cheaper cost than putting them in jail,” Uible said.
It costs $48-50 a day for an inmate in CASC, compared to $60 a day for an inmate in the jail, Uible said.
So, with CASC the county saves money and hopefully saves live, Uible said. Seventy percent or more of offenders end up back in jail but addicts only come back so many times before dying, he said.
The program potentially has room to expand, as CASC is not currently utilizing the entire part of the south side of the jail, Uible said. Once CASC has a perfect model, Uible said he could see the county specializing in this and take offenders from other counties, for a fee.
Last year, legislators in Columbus began allowing judges in other counties to send people to CASC, Uible said. No other counties have taken advantage of that yet, partially because CASC has been full just with inmates from Clermont County.