Caroline County Recovery Community Program

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

Like many localities throughout the nation, Caroline County, Virginia has been forced to commit increasingly scarce fiscal resources to incarcerating adult prisoners, many of whom are repeat offenders. These large expenditures are a drain on the County budget and take funds away from higher priorities such as education, public safety and quality of life initiatives. Approximately six years ago, the Caroline County Board of Supervisors prevailed upon the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney to explore methods of controlling these costs without a corresponding negative impact on public safety. Commonwealth’s Attorney Anthony G. “Tony” Spencer responded to the challenge by partnering with the McShin Foundation of Richmond, Virginia to create the Caroline County Recovery Community Program (CCRCP). The program provides an alternative to incarceration for qualifying drug offenders, who make up a majority of the jail population. Research conducted by the United States Department of Justice indicates that two-thirds of drug offenders will be re-arrested within three years of release and almost half will go back to prison because of a technical violation of their sentence or a new conviction. Thus, jailing drug offenders often becomes a revolving door that is very costly to local governments. Since its inception in 2011, the CCRCP has had tremendous success in keeping drug offenders out of prison and breaking the cycle of dependency. This, in turn, has saved Caroline County and the Commonwealth of Virginia hundreds of thousands of dollars in direct jail costs. The Caroline County Board of Supervisors authenticated the results of the program by agreeing to contribute $30,000 in County funds toward its operation in FY 2015 and beyond.