Low-level offenders kept locally when possible
Although state prison officials say a massive sentencing reform law that was supposed to save taxpayer money is actually costing more, Daviess County officials feel strongly the local community is doing its part in keeping low-level offenders close to home and costs minimal.
Diana Snyder, director of the Community Corrections program in Daviess County, says that although her department hasn’t seen any of the extra dollars the prison reform was supposed to generate, it has been awarded performance bonus money three years in a row.
“That’s because we don’t send offenders to the state. We already service our offenders locally first,” she said.
Last year, only five felons with either Class D felonies, or the new Level 6, were sent to the Indiana Department of Corrections, and in 2014, only two were sent.
“We were the lowest in the state last year,” she said.
Snyder, who has been doing corrections work for 30 years, is passionate about her job of helping clients.
“We always try to do what we can locally to keep the family dynamics….to keep the individual employed if at all possible, instead of sending a person to prison where they may become worse, and not always better,” she said.