BI Inc. Expands Day Report Center Operations from Calif. to Kansas

MERCED, Calif. — County corrections officials in Topeka, Kan., and Merced, Calif. awarded contracts to Behavioral Interventions Inc. to operate day reporting centers.

The Merced County Day Reporting Center, which opened in March, will initially house up to 50 adult and juvenile probationers and youth offenders who require extra supervision. Offenders will be assigned to the DRC for a period of up to 180 days.

Diverting offenders to community-based supervision and treatment at the DRC will reduce overcrowding pressures at Merced County’s Main Jail Facility and the John Latorraca Correctional Facility, officials say.

“The DRC is designed to support Merced County’s goal of administering corrective services that hold offenders accountable and of providing rehabilitative services that strengthen the community,” says Matt Moore, BI’s West Coast state director.

Employing an intensive case-management model, offenders assigned to the DRC are required to report to the center on a daily basis, submit to ongoing random drug and alcohol testing and undergo tailored treatment and training programming.

BI’s day reporting center in Shawnee County, Kan.

Failure to satisfy DRC rules and requirements results in the imposition of increased sanctions, including tighter curfews, house arrest or referral to probation or incarceration.

Offenders are also required to participate in a series of classes that focus on helping offenders to build vocational, coping and life skills, officials say.

Designed to alter anti-social and criminal behavior and reduce the risk of recidivism, classes include cognitive restructuring, anger-management, adult education and GED preparation, career development and community network building.

In Shawnee County, Kan., the community corrections department awarded BI the contract to operate a day reporting center for adult probationers in Topeka.

Under the supervision of caseworkers, offenders assigned to the DRC are required to satisfy conditions of their probation, observe curfews and daily check-in times, and submit to ongoing drug and alcohol testing. While assigned, offenders receive substance abuse treatment, educational and vocational programming, and life skills classes and counseling.

“The day reporting center provides a high level of supervision on a daily basis and the classes and counseling that offenders receive is designed to change criminal behaviors,” says Tom Hurley, BI’s Midwest regional reentry manager.

Funded through the Kansas Community Corrections grant program, which was introduced with the aim of reducing recidivism by at least 20 percent, the Topeka DRC will also serve Jackson, Jefferson, Pottawatomie and Wabaunsee counties, officials say.

Random drug testing is mandatory.

“Kansas has shown real leadership in corrections for looking at community-based alternatives to incarceration that include evidence-based practices,” Hurley says. BI also operates a DRC in Topeka for the state Department of Corrections.

BI’s contracts with Merced and Shawnee counties represent a continued expansion in county-level DRC projects awarded to the Boulder-based company, officials say. In recent months, the company was awarded DRC contracts for Franklin County, Pa., and Sedgwick and Dutchess counties in New York.

In other news, New York’s Ulster County Probation Department contracted with BI to provide GPS tracking services for adult probationers released to community supervision.
Under the terms of the deal, BI will deploy the company’s ExacuTrack AT passive GPS monitoring system, which provides probation officers with direct access to offender data via web-based monitoring software, officials say. BI will also provide access to its national monitoring center and related support services.

The system, which utilizes an ankle-bracelet transmitter and belt-mounted GPS tracking unit, allows staff to monitor offenders in the community, ensuring compliance with prescribed curfews and geographical inclusion and exclusion zones.

When the offender returns home and places the tracking unit in its companion base station – similar to a household telephone handset and base — GPS data is transmitted to BI’s central monitoring database to verify the offender is in compliance with prescribed schedules and zonal locations.

Violation alerts are forwarded to the supervising agency via pager, cellular phone or e-mail.

Established in 1978, Behavioral Interventions maintains contracts with government agencies in 2,700 locations throughout the United States, providing supervision technology systems and solutions, community-based counseling and treatment services, and educational, vocational and reentry programming for approximately 60,000 adult and juvenile offenders, officials say.