County takes over the house-arrest program

By Hal Johnson
Herald Writer

Mercer County was not planning to run its own house-arrest program, but it may save some money. County commissioners Thursday hired the officers who were employed by Community Alternatives, the Hermitage firm which previously ran the program for the county.

Community Alternatives left the county to take on its own projects, said Commissioner Cloyd E. “Gene” Brenneman. That left Mercer County Prison Board opting to run the program itself, instead of seeking another private company.

A state grant will continue to cover the costs of the house-arrest program, Brenneman said. And, he said, the county can do it at a lower cost.

If Community Alternatives were to continue to run the program through this year, it projected costs at $95,000. The county is projecting its annual cost at $73,000, Brenneman said.

Donald D. Fedorczyk, director of the Intermediate Punishment Program, said the grant will fund the program through the first five years of county operations.

Commissioners named Fedorczyk as administrator of the program. The salary board agreed to pay him $5,000 in addition to his IPP salary.

Commissioners hired Joseph Roseck as full-time house arrest officer and Eugene L. Lengel and Max A. Roseck as part-timers. The salary board set the wages for Rosek at $21,075 and the pay for the part-timers at 92 percent of Roseck’s wage.

The county’s wages are in line with those Community Alternatives paid the trio, said Commissioner Brian W. Shipley.

When a house-arrest officer is on 24-hour call, he will be paid $35 a day, the salary board decided.

Nonviolent offenders, often drunken drivers, are sentenced to be monitored in their homes instead of serving their sentence in the county jail. The defendants pay $12.50 a day to cover the costs of monitoring equipment, including an ankle bracelet and a transmitter, plus drug-testing equipment.

Commissioner Olivia M. Lazor advised program directors to review the costs of monitoring and drug testing equipment. She said the prison board is considering raising the fee charged to defendants to $15 a day.

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