Pictured: Josh Sipes Hancock County chief probation officer. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)
The Hancock County Probation Department has struggled to collect user fees so far this year, leading to a budget shortfall and additional money appropriation from the county council.
Chief Probation Officer Joshua Sipes says that the people his department serves are often those with the fewest resources, and if it becomes a choice between paying bills to survive, payments to help with rehabilitation such as therapy for people with charges related to mental health, or probation user fees, the user fees will be the last thing to get paid. The department also can’t cite people for not paying said fees. While Sipes says he supports the decisions of those individuals, as probation is pointless if people aren’t getting the help they need, it has made it difficult for the department to make ends meet.
“We don’t have debtor’s prison in this country, and we shouldn’t,” Sipes said.
He says that some fees have also been repealed at a state level, such as those for juvenile informal adjustment, a process for kids that keeps them out of a courtroom so long as they stay out of trouble. This work accounts for 75% of the department’s juvenile cases.
All of this has led to a $7,000/month shortfall in anticipated income for the department. Meanwhile, it has taken on an increased caseload of around 107 cases per probation officer, leading to a simultaneous increase in costs.
As reported during the meeting on Tuesday night, the funding was approved by the county council, but council members Kent Fisk and James Shelby warned that the parole department was not the only one facing these issues.
