Keep Joel

With your help out there, I've been able to work across party lines over the last two years to make these things reality:

-- Initiated added funds for senior home care and county historian in our county budget.

-- Initiated resolutions passed unanimously for a health insurance group discount committee, for IBM to protect retirees' health benefits, for a public hearing on St. Lawrence Cement, to protect wetlands, and purchase of wind power.

-- Initiated move for our county's Consumer Affairs website to expand with gas and prescription drug price information, and for AED defibrillator discount program.

-- Initiated marathon for tax breaks for small business-- not large chain stores.

-- Made sure Environmental Management Council got funds needed for rest of year.

-- Researched and educated public about MTBE water contamination in Rhinebeck.

-- Organized County Task Force for Campaign Finance Reform with former County Executive Lucille Pattison in 1998; co-hosted forum on this last year with Legislator Jim Hammond.

-- Hosted forums with Scenic Hudson, Dutchess Land Conservancy, & MicroBizNY.

Thanks also to you folks out there, 322 online endorsement comments have been posted to a dozen different online petitions I've set up since last December-- petitions that have called on our County Legislature to work pro-actively for common-sense things like a truly fair system of taxation, fair electric and gas rates, fair gasoline prices, health care for all county residents, shelter for all our county's victims of domestic violence, a first-month loan program for employed homeless county residents, a well-testing law, neighbor notification for pesticide application, a limit to air pollution from Dynegy's Danskammer and Roseton plants in Newburgh, monthly County Legislature meetings to be held in the evening, campaign finance reform on the county level, and bipartisan legislation in Washington calling on our troops to come home as soon as possible.

I ask you now to help with a new, crucial online petition effort-- to make those things reality, as well as these:

-- Save farmland and open space from development-- sprawl drives local taxes up (residential development takes two dollars in services for every dollar it contributes in taxes; Red Hook is the model).

-- Prioritize county contracts for local businesses-- not companies
outside county (Rockland County has done this already).

-- Housing local workers can truly afford-- hold real estate developers
accountable (there are examples of this across the country).

-- Help pay for well-testing-- hold oil companies liable for MTBE contamination (as Wappinger and Pawling and over 150 other communities across the U.S. have moved to do).

-- Save tax dollars-- solar/geothermal units installed in county offices
and buildings (as in Binghamton, San Francisco, New York City, etc.).

-- Clean our county's air-- ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel for county's
buses and trucks (as the Republican County Executive for Rockland County recently called on his county to do, and as in Westchester and NYC already).

-- Bail loan fund for nonviolent misdemeanors-- save $600,000 a year; not jail expansion (Genesee, Orleans, and Tompkins counties all have bail funds that work quite well).

I need to tell you that it really has been an honor to serve you folks these past two years. I ask you to sign this petition to support my re-election to our County Legislature to once again stand up for the people of Clinton and Rhinebeck on these crucial matters. Let's do this-- let's make these happen; let's keep moving forward.

We can't afford to take any more steps backward.

Yours,

Joel Tyner
876-2488
[email protected]
324 Browns Pond Road
Staatsburg, N.Y. 12580
http://www.JoelTyner.org

p.s. Campaign donations are welcome and needed, for mailings, signs, etc.; they can be sent to Tyner 2005 324 Browns Pond Road Staatsburg, N.Y. 12580.

p.p.s. As always, feel free to contact our County Legislature on this-- at 486-2100, [email protected], or
[email protected]

p.p.p.s. Call in with your thoughts on any of this to "The Real Majority Project" on WVKR 91.3 FM Sunday nights 9 to 11 pm-- at 437-7178 (and yes, I've invited my opponents on to join me each and every Sunday night until the election if they wish!).

p.p.p.p.s. Tune into "The Real Deal" on PANDA channel 23 Monday nights at 9 if you live in Rhinebeck.

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Help Make Change Happen-- Sign an Online Petition

These are all still current-- please add your name and comments to the 322 that have been posted to these twelve below already:

The Dutchess County Citizens Task Force on Fair Taxation Petition:
http://www/PetitionOnline.com/FairTax/petition.html

The Dutchess County Fair Electric and Gas Rates Petition:
http://PetitionOnline.com/FairRate/petition.html

The Dutchess County Gasoline Consumer Empower Petition:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Empower/petition.html

Dutchess County Health Care Petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/forpiggy/petition.html

Mother's Day Petition to Shelter Our County's Victims of Domestic Violence:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/nvragain/petition.html

First Month Security Deposit Loan Program for the Employed Petition:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/HelpPoor/petition.html

The Dutchess County Well-Testing Petition:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/cleanh20/petition.html

Neighbor Notification for Pesticide Application Petition:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/neighbor/petition.html

Dutchess County Clean Air (Clean Up Danskammer/Roseton) Petition:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Breathe/petition.html

Democracy for Dutchess County (Evening Legislature Meetings) Petition:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/democrcy/petition.html

Dutchess County Clean Government Petition:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/cleangov/petition.html

Bipartisan Homeward Bound for Our Troops Petition:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/homeward/petition.html

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"Taxation Task Force Needed" ["Fix the Mix"]
[August 19th Weekly Beat op-ed column]

The Weekly Beat is one of my favorite newspapers, but with all due
respect, last week's "County Sales Tax to Continue at 8\%" article was
incorrect when it stated that I have "repeatedly called for the
county to replace its sales and property taxes with a progressively
structured income tax." This simply is not true-- it would be much
too dramatic a shift; I've never called for this.

What I have advocated for is a shift away from relying so much on
property and sales taxes-- to shift some of that burden more to
revenue from income taxes and environmental taxes. And I'm convinced that only a Citizens Task Force on Fair Taxation will make it happen (sadly, up until now the leadership of our County Legislature has let it be known they don't wish to be involved in this; hope springs
eternal that they might change their minds!).

Let's look at the sales tax--fourteen counties across the state have
sales taxes lower than ours-- Putnam, Sullivan, Westchester, Clinton,
Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Lewis, Ontario, Saratoga, St.
Lawrence, Warren, Washington-- this is why the Democratic Caucus
recently voted against continuing our high rate. There's a better
way.

Our tax system has gotten so unfair and regressive in this state that
even someone making $56,800 a year actually pays more in sales and
excise taxes than they do in property taxes or income taxes-- and
they pay in state and local taxes almost twice what millionaires pay,
as a percentage of income. To be exact, someone making $56,800 a
year pays 11.1\% of their income in state and local taxes, while
millionaires are paying 6.5\% of their income in state and local
taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

To their credit, Assemblymen Kevin Cahill, Joel Miller, Pat Manning,
and Tom Kirwan, along with state Senator John Bonacic have also
called on shifting the funding for our public schools away from
property taxes towards income tax revenue. It's time leaders in our
county government, too, at least considered a similar partial move
for our county budget.

Frank Mauro, Executive Director of the Fiscal Policy Institute [(800)
521-3343], crunched the numbers and found that our county property
taxes could be cut by well over 50\% for everyone in the county, paid
for with merely a 10\% income tax surcharge for county residents--
with enough money left over to target tax breaks for local small
business owners instead of large corporations as well-- we should at
least consider this.

Michael Shuman spoke at a recent Northern Dutchess Alliance meeting and recommended that area leaders consider environmental taxes like Vermont's hazardous waste and land speculation taxes; in the past
Shuman has also recommended shifts towards income taxes too.

What do you think? Call our County Legislature 486-2100. Let us
know at 876-2488 if you'd like to be part of a Citizens Task Force on
Fair Taxation; sign the online petition at
http://www/PetitionOnline.com/FairTax/petition.html .

------------------------------------------

Our County Jail: A Democratic Plan

[This document was put together by Sandra Goldberg, Assistant Minority Leader, along with Minority Leader Roger Higgins, the entire caucus, Walt Jablonski, Joe Ruggiero, et. al.]

While maintaining our commitment to Public Safety, the Democratic
caucus has been consistent in recommending a course of action to
alleviate jail overcrowding.

Remove State Parole Violators from our facility.

Our resolution requesting the State Legislature and our State Representatives to initiate a change in the law on the State level was pulled by Republican leadership.

Our letter, sent many months ago, to our State Representatives requesting their help in changing the law and interceding on our behalf with the State Commission on Corrections only recently has begun to be addressed.

Our State Representatives to date have refused to meet with anyone from the Democratic caucus and have declined to participate in any of our legislative meetings.

Set up a Bail Bond Program.

Our resolution asking for this to be evaluated was pulled by Republican leadership. We need to know how many are in our jail because they can't meet bail and we need to know the cost of implementing this program.

We need to make sure that those who can be released pretrial don't remain in our jail because they are too poor to make bail.

Expand our Electronic Monitoring Program.

Our Resolution that included studying this and other alternatives to incarceration was pulled by Republican leadership.

We need to know the cost of additional equipment and personnel.

Support the Administration's efforts to implement a Mental Health Court

This would include alternative ways of housing those detainees with mental illness. This would reduce the jail population.

Explore with surrounding counties a regional approach for housing
female detainees.

This is the fastest growing population nationwide.

Exploring with surrounding counties a regional approach for housing youth needing a maximum security facility.

Currently there is no facility in the Hudson Valley.

All surrounding counties are transporting youth to facilities elsewhere.

Exploring with surrounding counties a regional approach for upgrading and utilizing the soon to be vacant Ulster County Jail.

This could be utilized for women and youth.

Urge NYS Parole to use electronic monitoring.

This is being done in some counties, but not Dutchess.

Decrease the time before trial and sentencing.

Our resolution which included studying methods to achieve this was pulled by Republican Leadership.

Set up additional and expanded Alternatives to Incarceration
.
Our resolution which included studying additional alternatives was pulled by Republican Leadership.

The Democrat caucus strongly feels that there are better ways of reducing jail population than bricks and mortar. Until it is clear on how expanded alternative programs reduce jail population, and until the State steps in and removes their parole violators, our taxpayers should not be burdened with any design or construction costs. We certainly appreciate public safety, but the things about which we are speaking are not a threat to the public.

Given these facts and still unanswered questions, our State Representatives should be advocating with the State Commission on our behalf to restore our variance while these other issues are explored and pursued. They have been remiss in not doing so sooner and as a result are partly responsible for costing county taxpayers additional dollars to house detainees elsewhere. State representatives from Tompkins County were successful in reversing a pulled variance for their County. However, these interim costs of housing out of county are far less than were we to proceed recklessly without all the information to start designing the additional cells.

Dutchess County Jail: Why It Is Not Time to Build New Cells

While maintaining our commitment to Public Safety, the Democratic caucus has been consistent in stating why it is premature to be thinking of building additional jail cells at this time. The State Commission of Correction, made up of three Governor Pataki appointees, has demanded that Dutchess County build an additional 300 beds. We say no to this State mandate for the reasons below.

There are between 50 - 70 state parole violators in our facility on any given day. Of those approximately 50\% are there for technical violations and belong in a State facility. Of the remainder who have allegedly committed a new crime, that in itself is a violation of parole and they should be remanded back to a state facility. This one action alone would relieve the overcrowding in our current facility.

The State says they have to remain in our facility. We asked our State Representatives as early as last fall to intercede on our behalf with the State Commission and to work on changing the law to relieve this condition. Only recently weeks have they even begun to do anything.

Governor Pataki announced in his State of the State Address that crime rates and the number of criminals in NYS have dropped significantly. The State has over 5,000 empty beds. Yet the State is telling us we have to spend tens of millions of dollars to build new cells. This makes no sense.

On any given day only 25\% of our jail population has been tried and sentenced. 75\% are waiting for trial and sentencing. We need to address these delays in our judicial system. One County Court Judge has been assigned to Acting Supreme Court responsibilities; this takes up to 60\% of his time.

In 2003 and 2004, 1,061 individuals who were not released from jail pretrial were ultimately sentenced to community supervision.

Significant numbers being held in our facility are unable to meet bail because they are our County's poor. We have asked what the number is and have not been given this. We need a bail fund program. We need to make sure that those who can be released pretrial don't remain in our jail because they are too poor to make bail.

Original proposals were for maximum security cells, yet 30 to 50\% of our detainees are accused of misdemeanors, not violent crimes. Medium and minimum security facilities would be adequate and are less expensive to build.

Information that we are told continually changes. How are we to determine what is correct? First we were told we needed 300 beds and that Alternatives to Incarceration were maxed out. Next we were told that there was room to expand our existing Alternatives to Incarceration programs, and that there were additional programs we could initiate. We need to know how this reduces jail population. Next we were told that combined with increases in Alternative programs, we could consider a 150 bed increase. Then we were told, the 150 bed increase would only be a first phase. The State still required the 300 beds.

We have been given cost numbers that range from 30 million to over 100 million, some reflecting just construction costs, others include bonding interest and operational costs. County taxpayers will pay the total cost.

How can one vote on any design phase with unclear information?

NYS Parole uses electronic monitoring in some counties, not Dutchess. Why not?

To build, staff, and maintain the original proposal would increase County taxes each year by over 18\%. We can not afford to do this to our residents.

The total combined cost of 48 capital projects approved over the past 3 years is less than the cost of this one single project. (This includes 6 projects for DCC renovation and construction, 16 projects for roads, bridges, buildings and equipment, 9 projects for preservation of open space, the Pipeline project, Eastern Dutchess Center, and 11 Airport projects.)

The Democratic caucus strongly feels that there are better ways of reducing jail population than bricks and mortar. Until it is clear on how expanded alternative programs reduce jail population, and until the State steps in and removes their parole violators, our taxpayers should not be burdened with any design or construction costs. We certainly appreciate public safety, but the things about which we are speaking are not a threat to the public.

If the Republican caucus truly believes that building is the right path to be taking now, they have enough votes on the Legislature to both pass such a measure and to override any veto. They can bring it to a vote now.

Given these facts and still unanswered questions, our State Representatives should be advocating with the State Commission on our behalf to restore our variance while these other issues are explored and pursued. They have been remiss in not doing so sooner and as a result are responsible for costing county taxpayers additional dollars to house detainees elsewhere. However, this interim cost is far less than were we to proceed recklessly without all the information to start designing the additional cells.

------------------------------------------

What We Can Learn from Tompkins County

Tompkins County Legislature Chair Tim Joseph faxed a letter to our
County Legislature on January 11th stating that the NYS Commission of Correction had backed off from pulling the variance for their county
jail [after local state legislators came forward to help on
this-- can be verified at (607) 274-5434].

The NYSCOC thus stepped away from their December threat to lower
Tompkins County's inmate allowance to only 58 (their attempt to force
that county to build a jail expansion).

[Too bad local Republican state legislators won't lift a finger here on this.]

We have much to learn from Mr. Joseph.

Fact: Both County Legislature Chair Brad Kendall and Assistant
Correction Administrator Gary Christensen informed county legislators
in January that there was no way to safely expand our county's
alternative to incarceration programs.

Fact: A month later, our county's Criminal Justice Council
issued a report recommending that our county do much more electronic monitoring, pro-actively invest much more heavily into effective and cost-saving alternatives to incarceration for women, mentally, ill, and our youth, and meaningfully address the current situation with parole violators-- instead of just apply band-aids.

Fact: For the last six months now the Republican majority in our
County Legislature has refused to allow Democratic resolutions
addressing the CJC recommendations to even appear on the agenda for Committee Days-- as a result there has been little to no progress
since then meeting the CJC's concerns.

It is unfortunate that the Republican majority of our County
Legislature would readily waste tens of millions of our tax dollars
on unnecessarily expanding our county jail.

[Kudos to our County Executive for his steadfast opposition on this.]

Genesee and Orleans counties share a bail fund, run by the Genesee-Orleans Ministry of Concern in Batavia [(585) 589-9210].
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:vWTVwonUIGQJ:www.co.genesee.ny.us/dpt/planning/gchousingdirectory.pdf+Chemung+County+bail+loan+fund&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 ;
http://www.volunteersolutions.org/uwgr/org/219022.html

There's a United Way agency called Offender Aid and Restoration in
Tompkins County (population 90,000) that now bails out 45 county
residents accused of nonviolent misdemeanors a year with such loans, and saves $300,000 annually for taxpayers there-- we could save about a million dollars a year with our population of 280,000. [This can be verified with OAR Executive Director Olan Mack at (607) 272-7885.]

In Tompkins County, much like our county, 75\% of inmates sitting
in their jail are never convicted or sentenced. Inmates who
qualify must have a co-signer on the bail loan (someone who has
the assets to pay off the loan, usually a family member-- this
is important because it means a commitment must be made by the
inmate to their family as well as the county). The forfeiture
rate is extremely low (only one or two a year-- better than with
most bail bonds companies).

County Legislators Sandy Goldberg, Fred Knapp, and I submitted a
resolution in February asking our county's Criminal Justice
Council to evaluate the feasibility of a bail loan fund for those
accused of nonviolent misdemeanors, as Tompkins County has now.

It has now been seven months since Goldberg, Knapp, and I first
submitted this resolution to address overcrowding at our County Jail.

How many more months will the G.O.P. majority in our County
Legislature continue to hold county taxpayers hostage by refusing to
allow good legislation to even come before the Public Safety
Committee (let alone a full board meeting)?

This below is from the website of Offender Aid and Restoration:
[ http://www.ithacanet.org/Orgs/OAR/oarfiles/geninfo.htm#bail ]

"While media representations suggest that all incarcerated persons
have been convicted of a crime, those closer to the reality know that
over 85\% of the people who pass through the jail are pre-trial
detainees. In keeping with our mission to ensure that all members of
our community, regardless of economic status, race or gender, obtain
equal justice before the law, we post bails of up to $1500 for people
who are carefully screened and meet our criteria. Since those who
have the financial means will post their own bails, our clients are
typically the people without means who would otherwise remain
incarcerated while awaiting trial. In addition to promoting justice,
this program saves the county over $200,000 annually in potential
incarceration costs. Each bailee-day saves county taxpayers at
least $70."

New Jersey, Illinois, and Rhode Island have had bail funds as well:

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:l4ULm4HGGDsJ:www.njleg.state.nj.us/legislativepub/Auditor/98041a.pdf+bail+fund&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:nK4x5Q4_tHcJ:www.state.il.us/dcfs/docs/362.pdf+bail+fund&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:p4K2YaEWMOEJ:www.oag.state.ri.us/reports/bailfund1203.pdf+bail+fund&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

The Victim Offender Reconciliation Program of New York has pointed out how badly bail funds are needed here in our state ( http://www.bail4u.com/page3.html ).

------------------------------------------

Read the quote below from Ed Martone, director of Public Education and Policy for the Pennsylvania Association on Corrections-- he endorsed the need for a bail fund there.

"Bail May Answer Overcrowding Problem" by Bernie Mixon
[Camden Courier-Post 3/10/04-- excerpt]
http://www.courierpostonline.com/specialreports/crisisinjail/m031004x.htm

Seven months before the first inmates would step through the door of the newly built Camden County Prison, a federal judge came up with a creative solution to five years of fluctuating overcrowding.

An order was signed in 1987 that forced county freeholders to set aside $250,000 to help bail out the jail's most indigent inmates.

With overcrowding still a problem 17 years later, could such a program be instituted again that would release inmates charged on minor offenses?

Would it have made a difference for Joel Seidel?

Seidel, 65, was murdered in January in the jail's psychiatric unit by cellmate Marvin Lister, 35, authorities say...

There's no way to know, but Ed Martone, director of Public Education and Policy for the Pennsylvania Association on Corrections, sees it as a possible option for prisoners not considered a threat.

"One is to have this kind of fund for people who don't pose that kind of threat," Martone said. "Another solution is to increase the public defender budget so there are enough public defenders to meet with clients on a timely basis and go to bail reduction hearings."

The judge's order was the end result of a 1982 class-action lawsuit filed by the State Public Advocate's Office on behalf of inmates.

The inmates were protesting overcrowding conditions at the former jail on the sixth floor of the combination city hall and county courthouse building in Camden.

The bail fund was to be used for indigent defendants accused of nonviolent and non-drug-related crimes...

------------------------------------------

The Pretrial Services Resource Center reports there are more than 300 pretrial services programs in place now across the country and points to "A Second Look at Allevating Jail Overcrowding: A System Perspective."
[ www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/bja/182507.pdf ;
http://www.pretrial.org/surveyresults.html ]

Also see Dana Kaplan's fact sheet on Cost Effective Solutions to Jail Overcrowding:
http://www.realcostofprisons.org/pdfs/jail_reform_natl.pdf .

"The National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies (NAPSA) has developed a set of standards for pretrial diversion programs that provide an excellent starting point for jurisdictions looking into developing them."
[ http://www.napsa.org ; http://www.pretrial.org/faq.html ]

------------------------------------------

Tompkins County Legislature Chair Tim Joseph's own words on WVKR August 21st:

"Last year the New York State Commission on Correction (NYSCOC) told us to more than double the size of our jail-- from 73 beds to 160 beds-- a $20 million expansion. The NYSCOC wouldn't even accept our compromise offer of 100 beds.

Eight years ago our jail population was 92 inmates-- now it's at 65 inmates. We've just been very pro-active with our drug courts to help turn peoples lives around-- so they don't end up back in our jail.

Note-- we're not turning dangerous criminals loose on to our streets; our county Office for the Aging surveyed elderly residents here last year on fear of crime, as they did four years ago-- the percentage of senior citizens who were afraid of crime was actually cut in half from 2001 to 2004.

We need to look at the whole cycle of what's really happening here. Once people are put in prison or jail, they're written off. They just end up getting dumped back into the community. They come back out into the community with nothing-- no resources. No place to stay. No source of income. A welfare system that doesn't take into account reality. Some steal to survive.

The number of inmates in state prisons has declined dramatically, while the number of inmates in county jails has increased because of all the state parole violators. The state releases inmates into parole, often then many of those violate parole, and end up in county jails waiting one to three months for a hearing. Parole officers are tremendously overworked with huge caseloads and can only meet with parolees five minutes once or twice a month at times.

To break this destructive cycle and ultimately save tax dollars as well, we're looking to start a new program in Tompkins County like Harlem's successful Community Justice Center Parole Re-Entry Court, where judges will be involved from the beginning.

A first step is that our county is now getting the names of those to be released next month from our local prisons, and our agencies are starting to do release planning; our Department of Social Services is starting to work with our jail and prisons on this.

I'm suggesting that judges consider 90-day sentences for certain offenses-- thirty days in jail, then thirty more days in jail at night-- while going to day reporting center during the day, and finally thirty more days attending the day reporting center (while sleeping outside of the jail at night). The day reporting center has counselors to help them find jobs, housing, and education.

Harlem's Re-Entry Court is run in cooperation with the parole system; the judge is an administrative law judge who works for parole. Parolees must come back to court each week; a team provides support (job counseling, housing referral, and resources for those with mental health, alcohol or substance abuse issues). The
judge gets a weekly report from the team."

------------------------------------------

Information on Harlem's Community Justice Center Parole Re-Entry Court
http://www.courtinnovation.org/demo_parole.html

[Dutchess County should consider this as well!]

The Harlem Community Justice Center, in cooperation with the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services and the Division of Parole, helps parolees from the Harlem community who have been imprisoned for non-violent, drug-related offenses make the transition from life in prison to responsible citizenship. The Justice Center links parolees to a wide range of social services, including drug treatment, health care, and mental health treatment. Where appropriate, these services are also offered to family members as well to help increase stability in the home. To promote increased accountability, participants are required to return to the Justice Center frequently to meet with case managers and parole officers and appear before an administrative law judge, who closely monitors their compliance with court orders. The goal is to prevent parolees from re-offending by helping them find jobs and assume familial and personal responsibility.

The Harlem Community Justice Center's work with parolees is based on the following principles:

Comprehensive Information: Potential participants undergo a pre-release assessment in prison to determine their suitability for the program. Parole officers in correctional facilities work closely with Justice Center staff to develop detailed profiles of participating inmates that include information about medical status (including mental health), addiction, criminal involvement, living arrangements, vocational skills and family composition. Based on this information, a customized treatment and supervision plan is prepared for each participant.

Accountability: After their release, parolees appear frequently at the Justice Center to report on their compliance with the treatment and supervision plans. To promote compliance, the Justice Center uses graduated sanctions and rewards. Sanctions for misbehavior, missed appointments and "dirty" urine samples may include curfews, increased court appearances and, in the most serious cases, return to prison. Rewards, which provide positive reinforcement for positive behavior, include reduced court reporting and relaxation of travel restrictions

Coordinated Services: The Justice Center emphasizes early identification of parolees' needs and speedy links to programs that deal with both employment and drug-relapse prevention. To improve service delivery, Justice Center staff, parole officers and service providers convene regular case conferences. When appropriate, parole officers will meet with the family members of parolees to encourage their assistance and support. The Justice Center has access to both on-site and community-based vocational and treatment services.