By Sara QuamCommunity Corrections isn’t something most people even know the definition of, but it basically involves supervising people on supervised release and probation. In Rock County, the Community Corrections agent is Cathy Rockman, who has done that for almost 11 years. She handles almost 200 cases at a time — from felonies to minor offenses by juveniles. Jon Ramlo is the joint Nobles and Rock County Community Corrections Director. He presented the Rock County Board of Commissioners with an overview of the department last week. Commissioner Ken Hoime said, "I really like what we have now. I think the joint powers was the way to go."Community Corrections is governed by a local board that gets state money. Without being a part of Community Corrections, Rock County would spend $119,299 on its own. Now it spends $47,686.Community Corrections is also eligible for grants and additional services, such as electronic monitoring. Rockman has 27 juvenile cases right now and said methamphetamine use is an increased factor for them. She said that is difficult to see. Ramlo said, "We’ve seen a huge jump in juveniles with methamphetamines just this year."Rockman said, "Treatment just isn’t effective with most people until they really want to go through it, so recidivism is so high for drug and alcohol violations."Ramlo said, "We struggle whether to send people to treatment programs."Rockman said that generally, DWI offenses make up the majority of her casework.In 2004, there were 77 drug-related sentences in Rock and Nobles counties. Of those, 75 percent were methamphetamine-related.For people subject to random drug testing while on probation, 164 tests came up positive for meth. That’s compared with 142 for marijuana, 38 for cocaine and 28 for other drugs.Per capita, Nobles and Rock counties have about the same number of drug sentences.Another role Corrections plays in the community is providing work for public or non-profit agencies. Crews p paint, renovate buildings and do outdoor clean-up projects."In seven years, one left a worksite," Ramlo said. "And he was found three blocks away and said he was going to get a cigarette."Locally, the Historical Society, Rock County Courthouse and Carnegie Cultural Center, to name a few, have used Community Service workers.Sex offenders and state statistics Rockman said, "Personally, I think dealing with sex offenders is the hardest to deal with, but there aren’t high numbers of those."Ramlo said a Level 3, the most severe, sex offender will be released to Rock County this summer. At that time, public meetings will disclose the offender and her place of residence. State agencies are involved in that process. Ramlo said, "Sometimes I think that the Level 1 and 2 offenders are almost worse because they slip under the radar because there’s no meetings about them."Ramlo said that there are probably a dozen sex offenders in Rock County now, including a few juveniles.Sex offenders make up only about 1 percent of the work in Corrections, he said, but they get a lot of media attention because of the nature of the crimes and the public’s fear of them.Statewide, there are 130,000 people in prison or on probation. About one in 46 Minnesotans is on probation, but that number is a little higher locally. In Rock County, about one in 40 is on probation, and in Nobles County about one in 38 is on probation.Minnesota has the lowest incarceration rate per capita in the country while it has one of the highest rates of offenders on probation.
