Blogs » Latest News

Attention for jail diversion program

By STAN STRICKER ( Contact ) Friday, May 23, 2008 - 4:46 a.m.

Rock County's Jail Diversion Programs may be attracting national attention.

Rock County Sheriff Bob Spoden says USA Today is planning on doing a feature article on methods to relieve jail overcrowding. Spoden says jail diversion programs like electronic monitoring have reduced the inmate population by almost 100 prisoners.

The impact on the jail is so significant, the county board Thursday night approved a plan to use money currently spent on housing jail inmates out of the county, to hire an additional deputy sheriff and corrections officer. Spoden says the programs have allowed enough breathing room to house all of Rock County's inmates locally.

The newest diversion program is set to being in two weeks. It's called the "Workenders" program. Inmates who can't pay their fines, are allowed to remain free during the week, and perform public service projects on the weekends.

reader COMMENTS

Click here to view reader comments

(5)

janesvillean
May 23, 2008 at 11:33 a.m.
Suggest removal

The article sounds like it's about more than one program, even if they are highlighting ours as an example.
.
I doubt they decided to do this story because somebody here "called" USA Today. It just doesn't work that way, backbiters.

jvlgirl
May 23, 2008 at 10:14 a.m.
Suggest removal

Why does it matter? If the diversion program is working to relieve overcrowding in the jail, then hooray!

bjordan
May 23, 2008 at 7:53 a.m.
Suggest removal

officerfriendly1,

You're right, it is a new story every single week that involves the Sheriff. I wonder who actually contacted USA Today...maybe the Sheriff Dept. Because I know that there's a lot more jail diversion programs across the country that are similar if not the same. I don't see why the Rock County's Program is supposely gaining national attention.

officerfriendly1
May 23, 2008 at 7:40 a.m.
Suggest removal

Gee, I wonder who contacted the USA Today? Maybe Sheriff/future Governor Spoden? Is it just me or is there a Sheriff Spoden story in the paper just about every week?

Before you post a comment, consider this:

Note: GazetteXtra.com does not condone or review every comment. Read more in our User Policy Agreement

Keep it clean. Comments that are obscene, vulgar or sexually oriented will be removed. Creative spelling of such terms or implied use of such language is banned, also.
Don't threaten to hurt or kill anyone.
Be nice. No racism, sexism or any other sort of -ism that degrades another person.
Harassing comments. If you are the subject of a harassing comment or personal attack by another user, do not respond in-kind. Hit the "Suggest Removal" button on offensive comments.
Share what you know. Give us your eyewitness accounts, background, observations and history.
Do not libel anyone. Libel is writing something false about someone that damages that person's reputation.
Ask questions. What more do you want to know about the story?
Stay focused. Keep on the story's topic.
Help us get it right. If you spot a factual error or misspelling, email newsroom@gazettextra.com or call 1-800-362-6712.
Remember, this is our site. We set the rules, and we reserve the right to remove any comments that we deem inappropriate.

Post Comment

Commenting requires registration.

News:

Opinion:

Blogs | Columns | Political Cartoons | Polls

Sports:

Multimedia:

Community:

Births | Couples | Obituaries | Death Notices

Blogs

Blog List | Latest Blog Entries

Services:

Reader Rewards | Retail Locations

Copyright ©2007 Bliss Communications Inc. All rights reserved. Use of this material and this site are subject to the GazetteExtra Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Content may not be published, broadcast, re-distributed or re-written.