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The Nicholas County Fiscal Court voted unanimously to implement the AIR™ Program beginning February 1.

“As you know, we pay $30 a day for keeping people in the Bourbon County Detention Center,” Nicholas County Attorney Dawn Letcher told a standing-room-only fiscal court meeting. “With this monitoring system at $10 to $14 a day, over time, you can imagine the potential savings of using such a program.”

As counties and states all across America wrestle with ways to decrease corrections costs while ensuring public safety, Nicholas County was quick to take part in the cutting-edge program. The following week the fiscal court voted unanimously to transfer twelve ex-offenders over to the AIR system.

The program is called AIR -- the Alternative to Incarceration via Rehabilitation. Developed by Lexington, Kentucky-based Corrisoft, the program is a web-based platform that combines cutting-edge GPS tracking and monitoring of ex-offenders with a 24/7 support staff that helps participants get the employment, housing and social services needed to help close the revolving door in Kentucky prisons.

On average, nationally, 67% of ex-offenders end up back in prison within 18 months, either by violating the terms of their probation or parole or by committing another offense. “Our program helps people get the help they need, help with jobs, housing, treatment,’ according to Mike Pickett, an AIR Support Agent.

One of the AIR program’s unique features is the use of a smart phone to track and monitor participants, with the addition of an ankle-bracelet for higher-risk offenders. Participants are randomly called on average six times per day as part of the monitoring as well as a way to encourage participants on their road back. The phone also provides users with an extensive database of employers, housing opportunities and services geared toward ex-offenders.

The program appears to be working. With 100% of participants obtaining housing, a 75% employment rate and a very low recidivism rate of just 4%, hopes are high that the AIR program is providing county budget’s with a much needed breath of fresh air.

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Ky. prepares to release nearly 1000 inmates

LOUISVILLE, KY (WDRB) -- Nearly 1,000 inmates are expected to released in the coming days as part of a new program designed to save Kentucky's government millions of dollars. Under the new early release program, 996 inmates will be released on January 3, 2012, six months before their earliest release dates. It's all part of the mandate created in the passage of House Bill 463. The process is estimated to save the state $40 million next year. Read more…

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996 Kentucky inmates get out early in new prison plan

Easing transition, fighting recidivism are main goals Kentucky is poised to release nearly 1,000 inmates about six months early as part of a mandatory new program aimed at easing their transition back into the community, reducing recidivism and helping trim its corrections budget by about $40 million next year. Read more…

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Early release: Drawdown of inmates
will be felt here

In case you missed it, the Henderson County Detention Center will be releasing 31 low-risk state inmates on Jan. 3 as its share of 996 inmates being released from prisons and county jails across the state.

With only six months or less remaining on their sentences, those inmates are to be placed under the supervision of state Department of Probation and Parole in a program designed to smooth the transition back into their community. Read more…

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Ky. To Release Hundreds Of Inmates Early. Low-Level Felons Nearing End Of Sentence Eligible.

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Kentucky is preparing to release nearly 1,000 inmates early as part an overhaul of the corrections department that state lawmakers passed earlier this year.

Inmates who are within six months of being released will be let go on Jan. 3 and put under supervision by the Probation and Parole Department.

Justice Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown told The Courier-Journal that the program helps inmates find jobs and housing after leaving prison, in an attempt to reduce recidivism (http://cjky.it/rwbaWZ). It also will trim the Department of Corrections budget by about $40 million next year. Read more…

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KY inmates to be released early

HOPKINS CO., KY (WFIE) Nearly 1,000 inmates across Kentucky will be released early. It's part of a program to reduce the prison population and save the state money.

Inmates within six months of being released will be let go on January 3, but the effect won't be the same on state prisons as it is with county jails.

The state pays county jails to house inmates, and Hopkins County jailer Joe Blue says they plan to release around 25 inmates in a couple weeks, forcing them to lose over $750 a day in revenue. Read more…

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Michigan Lets Prisoners Go—and
Saves a Bundle

By Elizabeth Dwoskin
Case manager Jennifer Tellez Brian Widdis for Bloomberg Businessweek

Closely monitoring ex-cons leads to a big drop in repeat offenses. In a small, drab office at the Charles Egeler correctional facility in Jackson, Mich., Corey Russell, a 34-year-old stickup man, is taking a test that will determine whether he is ready to be let out of prison. “In the three to six months prior to this incarceration, how often were you bored in your spare time?” asks case manager Jennifer Tellez. “Quite often, actually,” says Russell, who is serving a 14-month sentence for attempting to rob a poker hall. Tellez works her way through the 130-question evaluation form in front of her. “In the last year, were you working any jobs?” Russell shakes his head. She asks whether he agrees with the following statement: “I am really good at sweet-talking people to get what I want.” Russell grins. “Agree!” he says. Read more…

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California Begins Moving Prison Inmates

By JENNIFER MEDINA | Published: October 8, 2011

LOS ANGELES — Facing an unprecedented order from the Supreme Court to decrease its inmate population by 11,000 over the next three months and by 34,000 over the next two years, California prisons last week began to shift inmates to county jails and probation officers, starting what many believe will be a fundamental and far-reaching change in the nation’s largest corrections system. Read more…

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California's prison needs to attract investors

By Jim Christie | SAN FRANCISCO | Mon Oct 3, 2011 4:32pm EDT

(Reuters) - The Golden State may be ushering in a golden era for investing in jails.

California's prisons "realignment" begins this month with counties taking charge of low-level felons to help unclog state prisons, which are under court order to ease overcrowding.

Thinning the most populous U.S. state's prison population involves setting free 30,000 inmates. That will require county sheriffs and probation officers to manage many who run afoul of the law, along with nonviolent offenders. Read more…

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California prison realignment to put more low-level offenders on streets

By Tracey Kaplan | tkaplan@mercurynews.com | Posted: 09/26/2011 06:41:49 AM PDT

To trim its bulging prison population and cut costs, California is about to gamble on a strategy no other state has tried -- unload the responsibility for punishing and rehabilitating thousands of nonviolent felons from the state prison system to local communities. Read more…