Locals: Don’t cut Sentencing to Service
Published 9:40 am Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Off a dead-end road on the south end of town, a small crew worked Monday to clear away junk and debris from an abandoned house.
Loading up item after item into a large Dumpster, the crew — part of Sentencing to Service, or STS for short — prepared the house to be used by local firefighters for training.
It’s just one of many tasks the crews have performed over the years for local nonprofit or governmental entities as part of the program, which gives low-risk offenders an alternative to jail or fines.
Recently, the group has also trimmed trails for the local snowmobile association, painted galleries at the Albert Lea Art Center, gutted the former Jacobson Building for the Vitality Center, took out the basement floor of The Rock and cleaned the pool at Albert Lea High School, to name a few tasks.
But these projects could be halted under Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s proposed budget, which calls for the elimination of the state’s contribution to the STS program as part of a plan to make up for a $1.2 billion state deficit.
Janelle VanEngelenburg, STS crew leader in Freeborn County, said currently the cost of the STS program is split 50/50 between the state and counties.
In 2009, Freeborn County spent just over $40,000 on the program, said Administrator John Kluever. The same amount is budgeted for in 2010.
The absence of the program would affect not only the county, which would be forced to have higher costs to jail the offenders, but it also would affect all of the organizations that utilize the workers to cut down on costs, VanEngelenburg said.
The STS workers do not receive pay to perform their duties.
Judges would also be limited to what they can sentence, she noted.
Right now, if someone from jail comes out and works a full day with STS, that person can get the equivalency of one day in jail taken off of his or her sentence, she said. If the program is taken away, that will mean more time in jail for low-risk offenders, which is an added expense, she said. Or it could mean higher fines.
She said people who are participating in STS while on probation can use the time to pay off fines that they might not have been able to pay.
Offenders are given a deadline of when they have to have their STS time completed and then are responsible for setting up that time with VanEngelenburg.
She encourages them to pretend as if it were a real job.
“Hopefully, they learn some work skills and some work ethic, too,” VanEngelenburg said. “There’s so many positive aspects. It just makes sense.”
Shane Wilder of Walters was sentenced to 26 days of STS for his second drunken driving offense. He was working with VanEngelenburg’s crew on Monday.
Wilder said he thinks the program is a good way to get projects done in the community while at the same time helping offenders learn lessons.
If the STS program weren’t available, that’d mean jail time or cash out of his pocket, he said. And for him, with a daughter, he’d rather put in the service time than pay the money or go to jail.
“I think it’s excellent this is an option,” Wilder added.
He has set up pigpens for the Minnesota State Spring Barrow Show, hung wreaths and garland on Broadway Avenue in Albert Lea, and cleaned and set up for the Albert Lea Salvation Army’s toy and food distribution, among other things, he said.
“I don’t see how 90 percent of the stuff we do would get done without us,” he said.
He hopes people recognize the benefits of the program.
Big Island Rendezvous & Festival coordinator Perry Vining said it would be difficult to find the number of volunteers necessary to fill the gap for his events if the STS program were to end.
“I don’t want to say it’d be impossible, but it’d be very close to that,” Vining said. “It’s thousands of dollars they save us. If we had to hire that to be done, it’d really be detrimental to our Education Days and stuff we do.”
STS workers set up a full-sized homesteading cabin for the historical fair at the Northbridge Mall, put up all the tents at the county fairgrounds for the Big Island Barbecue, split enough firewood for 1,000 participants to cook three meals a day and stay warm at night during the Rendezvous, and set up tents for the annual October event, too.
Fourth quarter 2009 statistics on the Sentencing to Service program in Freeborn County:
Workers completed 2,559 hours of work worth a dollar value benefit of $25,030 (if workers had been paid only $6 an hour).
Out of the hours worked during the quarter, there were 1,592 hours spent on county projects and 967 hours spent on state projects.
The average daily crew was made up of seven people.
Inmates of the Freeborn County jail performed 352 hours of STS during the quarter.
— Information from a Minnesota Department of Corrections quarterly report dated Jan. 19, 2010
After the Rendezvous is over, STS crews assist with cleaning Bancroft Bay Park, Vining said. “They just make that park pristine in the days following the event.”
He said STS crews have been involved with the Rendezvous from its origins.
And over the years, there have been clients who have put in work through the program and then come back years later to volunteer on their own as part of the community.
“They’ve had such a good experience of working with all the other volunteers we already have,” Vining said. “It’s been such a positive reinforcement to show them that we need you and we appreciate your help.
“It’s so much more productive to take a person, and instead of having them sit in a cell, get them out doing something that’s beneficial to the entire community and have them feel good about what they’re doing.”
He said he hopes the program continues — for the benefit of Albert Lea and Freeborn County.
The Albert Lea Salvation Army is another organization that benefits from STS workers several times a month.
Local Capt. Jim Brickson said STS workers are instrumental in preparing for the Salvation Army’s Thanksgiving meal, setting up the Christmas toy shop and preparing food baskets for distribution.
They also unload trucks of food for the food pantry.
“They’ve just done a multitude of things for us,” Brickson said. “Will we be able to live without them? Well we’d have to learn, but it won’t be easy.”
He questioned what it would mean for Freeborn County if organizations and government entities had to employ the equivalent number of people to get their work done.
He credited VanEngelenburg’s work ethic and her ability to motivate the crews.
“Because of working with Janelle, those people are touched in understanding what it’s like to work a full day,” Brickson said. “You can’t buy that kind of therapy any place in town.”
VanEngelenburg encouraged people to contact their state legislators if they are interested in showing their support for the program.
Under Pawlenty’s proposal, the program would end June 1.