QuickTake:

Lane County’s community corrections system, aimed at preventing people convicted of felonies from reoffending, faces severe cuts to programs and services. If the funding shortfall continues, officials warn it will be easier for people to slip through the cracks without access to services like housing and behavioral health care. 

In Lane County, parole and probation staffers work with a local nonprofit and others to help people with criminal convictions rebuild their lives, land new jobs and locate housing.

The county’s community corrections system has the goal of helping people reintegrate into society to lead protective lives without committing another crime. For some, the system offers a pathway to avoid a prison sentence and remain in Lane County. Others are returning to the county after serving time in a state prison.

The quality and reach of that work now is in peril, officials told Lane County commissioners Tuesday. The state allocated about $28 million for Lane County community corrections in its 2025-2027 budget. But the county estimates a shortfall of $8.1 million to continue existing services. 

Without funds from other sources, the system will lay off people and be forced to significantly pare back on programs and services, officials said. 

“We will be at a place where we are just warehousing clients,” said Greetje Brunsmann, manager of Lane County’s Community Justice and Rehabilitation Services Program.

Judges would have fewer options for people to get help outside of a jail setting, which would make incarceration likelier. Fewer services such as therapy or mentoring programs would be available. 

Sponsors Inc., a nonprofit that contracts with Lane County to provide services, would have 31 fewer beds available to house people released from prison. Hundreds would be impacted, Sponsors officials told commissioners. That cut would mean an estimated 388 fewer men and women sheltered in a two-year period.

County commissioners directed County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky to bring back potential ideas for how to fund community corrections services, though they recognized it’s a challenging request amid tight economic times. 

“I don’t want to say ‘collapsing,’” Commission Vice Chair Ryan Ceniga said at the meeting. “I don’t want to overstate, but it sure feels like that’s what we’re on the verge of with these cuts.”

Officials: Cuts would hurt innovative programs

Community corrections programs serve thousands of people in Lane County. As of August, Lane County Parole and Probation supervises 2,230 clients, primarily people convicted of felonies. 

They include people who need to access housing, health care and reentry into society. The programs offer participants the chance to meet with mentors or access education and jobs.

For adult parole and probation, the cuts would mean the loss of 12 positions, leaving 32 parole officers for a caseload of 2,230 people on supervision, Brunsmann said.

That means close to 1,000 people would be unsupervised, Brunsmann said.

For the adult jail in Lane County, the cuts would lead to the reduction of six full-time equivalent positions, said Capt. Greg Rice, commander of the jail.

That would lead to the loss of a deputy who serves inmates in the facility with mental health needs, Rice said. That work involves checking on people in the jail, coordinating medical care and other services. That deputy supports a mental health sergeant who does external work such as working with the courts system.

“We cannot lose people through the cracks,” Rice said.

Rice warned that those cuts, if enacted, would strain staff.

‘It’s reasonable for us to believe these reductions are going to lead to staff burnout and high turnover,” Rice said.

Annie Herz, executive director of Sponsors Inc., outlined how the potential cuts could affect her organization beyond the loss of 20 beds for men and 11 for women. 

Other Sponsors programs would face cuts or entirely go away. For example, the nonprofit would have to cancel a 25-session curriculum that helps people identify and change their behaviors and start imagining a new life.

Sponsors also would have to cut 65% from a crisis fund that helps people on supervision pay for needs like rental assistance, medication, glasses, bus passes and work clothing. 

Impacts on the court system

Fewer resources in community corrections will impact courts, Lane County Circuit Court Judge Bradley Cascagnette told commissioners.

“We’ll function, but it’s toothless and offenders aren’t going to be reformed,” Cascagnette said.

With fewer staff to supervise people, prosecutors will be less likely to negotiate probationary sentences due to uncertainty about supervisions for defendants, Cascagnette said. 

That could lead to more trials and an increased court workload. A lack of oversight makes it more likely that people will reoffend, Cascagnette said. 

“We’re likely to have more property crimes,” Cascagnette said. “We’re likely to have other offenses that are going to be committed.”

County officials have heard of the shortfall throughout past budget cycles, when the county has chipped in funding to supplement state money. 

Each budget cycle, it’s been more. In the 2021-2023 cycle, the county put $2 million of its own funding. In the 2023-2025 cycle, the county added $5 million.

“This is a slow-moving train that is exponentially picking up speed and none of us should be surprised by this presentation,” Commissioner Laurie Trieger said.

Statewide issue 

Gov. Tina Kotek recommended $332.5 million statewide in her budget request to the Legislature. After a lackluster revenue forecast and fewer people flowing through the system than expected, lawmakers allocated $279 million instead. 

Historically, Lane County has developed partnerships, such as with Sponsors Inc., that look for ways to innovate and try new ideas to prevent people from reoffending.

“There are a lot of ways that we have had to get by with a lot less resources,” Paul Solomon, a former executive director of Sponsors Inc. and current chair of the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, said in an interview. “And frankly, it’s been the mother of invention. A lot of the programs that have been created are ones that are partnerships.”

But even with innovation, good ideas and programs need adequate funding, officials said. They warned that when programs disappear entirely, it’s much harder to restore them.

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.