Thurston County District Court has discontinued its probation services, District Court Executive Officer Frankie Peters told a Tumwater committee on Tuesday, January 9.
Peters attended this week’s meeting of the Tumwater Public Health and Safety Committee to give an update on the services the district court offers.
The city has been in contract with the county district court since 2013 to provide the adjudication and administration of cases that the city’s municipal court would typically manage, documents prepared for the meeting stated.
One update was regarding the district court’s probation services, which had to be cut from the county’s budget due to a lack of funding.
“Thurston County this year unfortunately had some budget cuts due to the amount of revenue coming into the county and the increase in costs for services,” Peters said.
“There was a dollar amount associated with that per district court. Unfortunately, probation is the only non-mandated service of our court and the only place where any cut could take place,” Peters continued.
Peters explained that through their probation services, the district court was able to support resources to help people comply with court conditions. Support includes resources for finding jobs and housing and helping people connect with parents or find childcare.
“What we found is you provide these resources, that's where you're gonna get the compliance with the court-ordered conditions,” Peters said.
“You can't expect somebody to get all the way through their treatment needs if they're not going to have the housing resources or job resources that are necessary to support themselves and their family,” Peters continued.
Peters also gave an update about the substance monitoring program, in which the county pays for the alcohol monitoring device of someone with a driving under the influence (DUI) charge. Peters said that before the program, those with DUI charges needed to pay $13 to $15 per day for the device.
As most of the people who require court services are indigent, they tend to not have the ability to pay the fees, according to Peters. What ends up happening is that these people return to the court in violation of court order conditions. The substance monitoring program allows these people to remain in their community instead of jail time.
"What we do is we'd end up seeing these people before the court in violation of their court order conditions, saying I just can't pay this,” Peters said. “Well what's the other alternatives? Putting them in a jail."
The program started in June 2022 has so far served 500 people, Peters said. He added that the daily compliance rate for the program is 98.9%.
The program is funded for this year through the American Rescue Plan Act. As this funding expires, Peters said they would work to identify other funding sources for the next years.
Peters also spoke about mental health and veterans’ court. The mental health court is a deferral program for those with mental health conditions, allowing them to receive support through therapeutic case management and sobriety monitoring as they participate in court proceedings.
The veterans court is an offshoot on mental health court for those that require services specific to veterans.
Peters said that Tumwater currently has five participants in mental health court and four in veterans court. He added that they have made programmatic changes allowing them to create more openings for the program.
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Empyreal_Impressions
JUST OUTTA CURIOSITY…paying for boulders to remove the homeless encampments was more important to Thurston County Legislators and Officials when budgeting this years finances??? And that isn’t even a court mandated financial obligation. And I am almost certain it is a great possibility that half of those people were either on probation, have some sort of legality, or participating in mental health court or substance abuse treatment. So while you are cutting funding for one program, and financing another one both are affecting the same group of people within the community. Had that ever crossed your minds??? But, nonetheless the financing BOULDERS for the benefit of the visual appeal of Olympia was more important than keeping crime to a minimum, preventing senseless incarcerations, and keeping people in compliance with court recommendations and requirements!!! Yep,
Sunday, January 14 Report this
Empyreal_Impressions
Yep, Thurston County really knows how to budget Olympias finances. Y’all need to go and get Les Myhre out of retirement (he was OFM Olympia’s budget analyst for over 40 years). Cuz yall are lost without him. While you are cutting funding for one program and taxing the tax payers more money to fund another program, sadly both are targeting the same group of people. But it’s all good though right???
Sunday, January 14 Report this