UCHRA Applies For State Funding To Establish Day Reporting System

UCHRA awaiting feedback from a state grant application to reduce the amount of drug offenders serving time.

Executive Director Mark Farley said funding would be used to create three day reporting centers. They serve as alternatives to incarceration by placing eligible participants in outpatient programs.

“We’ve proposed to offer three day reporting,” Farley said. “That would be for helping individuals in substance abuse issues going through the court system to where if they have some issues go on in their life and they find themselves in front of a judge, hopefully they’ll have an option to not have to serve time.”

Farley said the three locations would be stationed in Putnam, Smith and Warren Counties. Farley said he anticipates the State Department of Corrections will share the grant recipients next week.

According to the state, the center is a one-year three-phase program that will assist moderate to high-risk offenders with a substance use issue. In order to be eligible for the program, the participant must be under the supervision of TDOC’s Community Supervision, have at least 2 years left on probation supervision, and/or have substance use concern.

It is more cost-effective to keep non-violent offenders out of the prison system.  It currently costs $79.00 per day to incarcerate an offender versus $41.00 per day for an offender to report to a Day Reporting Center, according to the state.