LUFKIN, Texas — Angelina County Corrections supervisor Dustin Fore says less funding means the Community Supervision and Corrections Department has to cut back.
“We put it out to the staff that we’d be laying off three officers and two support staff. When we did announce that, we had several officers…that were in somewhat of a better position, they still needed a job, but somewhat of a better position…that volunteered to take the layoffs.”
The cause of this decrease is the source of their funding.
“I would say that approximately 70% of our funding comes from probation fees," said Fore.
And these fees are an unstable resource.
Fore said, “You’re getting a population to support your budget that is dealing with all sorts of issues ranging from drug abuse, to trouble finding a job just because they’re a felon.”
Fore says that with lower staff levels, come higher work loads.
"Right now their caseloads are probably running about a hundred and forty people on each case load.”
Fore sees this higher work load making it harder on parole officers to serve the community as effectively.
"There might be more people ending up going to prison when we could have diverted them. So were trying to avoid that," he explained, "we’re trying to instill in our officers that ‘Hey we still got a mission here we’re still trying to keep people out of prison we’re still trying to divert people to the resources that we have.’”
Fore says the mission of his department is to serve the community by helping to rehabilitate convicts.
"There’s a big recidivism rate with people coming out of prison. So if we can stop that cycle, we affect public safety like that,” he said.
Officer Fore says they are currently working with local legislators to find a stable source of funding for the department.