The Greene County Supervisors are considering a pilot program to be used in the criminal justice system.

Boone County Probation is a program that provides resources to convicted criminals who are on probation to rehabilitate themselves and/or report any potential violations of their probation. Greene County Attorney Thomas Laehn says currently convicted criminals in the county who are on probation are given either formal or informal probation. Those who are in the formal probation program are assigned a probation officer, must adhere to strict regulations and programs as deemed by the state. Those who are sentenced to information probation are assigned to the Greene County Sheriff’s office, which can sometimes have little to no supervision of the individual and very little guidelines to follow.

By using Boone County Probation for a one-year pilot program, Laehn says individuals can then be submitted to random drug testing, have access to substance and mental health resources and programs, employment opportunities, plus the probation officer can report any probation violation and the terms of the probation agreement can be rescinded and the jail or prison sentence can be reinstituted. Laehn says the goal of the program is to reduce the number of repeat offenders in the county.

“So the program will do two things: first it will help with the rehabilitation of the offender. But the flipside of that is if we achieve these rehabilitative efforts these same individuals will be less likely to reoffend and that protects the citizens of Greene County.”

Laehn adds that 20 criminals will be selected for the pilot program, with payment to come from the criminals themselves as well as $8,515 from the Supervisors. A written agreement is expected to be presented for the Supervisors to consider approving at a future meeting.