The building matches the rest of the prison, brick and blue, but the upcoming opening of a new work release center could give Floyd County courts a renewed ability to fairly but firmly deal with low-level offenders.

Those sentenced to the Floyd County Work Release Center will be able to keep their jobs and receive training and counseling — while paying for their room and board.

“We’re looking at being completed with construction around Dec. 16 and get a certificate of occupancy at that time,” Floyd County Prison Warden Jeff Chandler said. “We’ve got an estimated date of Feb. 1 for starting the program.”

The weather pushed back the original January opening date for the 100-person facility located next to the Floyd County Prison on Black’s Bluff Road, Chandler said, but even with the delay he expects to have people in the beds on day one.

Floyd County Superior Court Judge Jack Niedrach, who has already sentenced one person to the facility, said the additional sentencing option is welcomed with the number of child support non-payment cases processed by the court.

“Roughly 300 cases a month come through the courthouse,” Niedrach said.

All four Superior Court judges schedule a day on the calendar to deal with child support issues, and a significant number of those cases are dealt with prior to coming before a judge.

However, since the Department of Corrections announced in July 2008 the closure of the Rome Diversion Center — as a part of state mandated budget cuts — the only options for punishment have been jail or probation.

This option, especially in the case of child support, is definitely better than the current option of jailing those behind on payments, said Chandler.

“The child doesn’t get the money,” Chandler said. “Child support enforcement doesn’t get the money — taxpayers get beat on both ends. With this, taxpayers are not having to foot the bill.”

Similar to diversion center

The new facility will work much like the previous state-run diversion center, District Attorney Leigh Patterson said. Low-level offenders, especially those who need to pay restitution, work during the day and stay at the facility at night.

The option of sending a person behind on child support payments or a probation fine to a work release type center, rather than jail, has been missed in the interim, Patterson said.

“It’s a good sentencing option for someone who is not a violent offender, a low-level type defendant,” Patterson said. “It allows them to keep their job and if they have dependents they can still pay child support — which is a condition of their probation anyway — and they can pay restitution to the victim of the crime they were convicted of.”

Floyd County has a state funded Day Reporting Center, which is a similar program with a specific focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment. However, the center is only available to certain types of non-violent felony offenders — which leaves a sentencing vacuum for offenses such as misdemeanors or non-payment of child support or probation fines.

“There are a lot of offenses where we need to impress on people the seriousness of what they’ve done and allow them to keep their jobs — and I think working is rehabilitative,” Floyd County Superior Court Chief Judge Walter Matthews said. “That’s the whole hope of something like this.”

Costs and rehabilitation

The facility itself was funded by $1.75 million from the 2006 special purpose, local option sales tax package, which also included moving a public works facility located at the site.

People housed at the center will have to pay a fee of an estimated $15 to $16 per day, with any fines or child support fees taken directly from their payroll check.

In order to enter the center’s program, the person will need to already have a job and pre-qualify with the district attorney’s office.

The time served will likely be based on the offense, Chandler said. In general, probation violators will likely be sentenced to serve a specific amount of time and child support violators would be sentenced to the facility until they get paid up to a certain point.

“It gets them current on their plan,” Chandler said.

Much of the emphasis is on personal responsibility, said Case Manager Frank Cronan.

Those housed at the facility will be allowed to go to medical appointments and work, but the rest, including meals, is taken care of at the facility.

“They wash their own clothes and pretty much take care of themselves,” Cronan said.

Part of the rehabilitative services at the work release center will include GED classes, anger management as well as drug and grief recovery programs sponsored through the Westside Family Worship Center.

The center, a not-for-profit ministry based in Coosa, worked with the diversion center in the past and Pastor Frank Holtz­claw said they will continue to offer these programs with the work release center.

“Also, when they’re released we are able to help them with food and clothes on a temporary basis if they need it,” Holtzclaw said. “We’re looking forward to working with the center and like we worked with the diversion center and helping the community in any way we can.”