10/13/2009
DAVID CLOUSTON
Community Corrections of Saline and Ottawa counties will work with a consultant to assess how well agency-funded programs are succeeding at curbing serious youth crime and how they can be improved.
The $15,000 contract with John Paul Wright, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati, is being funded out of reimbursement fees paid by offenders being supervised by Community Corrections, director Annie Grevas said.
Each year Community Corrections funds about a half-dozen nonprofit, out-of-school programs, which are aimed at building youth esteem and helping youths avoid criminal behavior.
The budget for those programs currently is about $122,000, Grevas said, after Tuesday’s Saline County Commission meeting, at which she updated commissioners on the project.
The programs include the Gang Resistance Education And Training program offered by the Saline County Sheriff’s Office, the Spanish-speaking case management program offered by Child Advocacy and Parenting Services and the city of Assaria’s Summer Youth Program.


Read the rest of this story in Wednesday's Salina Journal.