FARMINGTON—The Davis County Sheriff’s Office has partnered with the Department of Corrections for a pilot program called Living in Balance that gives inmates with a parole violation the opportunity to rehabilitate. 

“It’s been working very well,” said Davis County Sheriff Kelly Sparks. “The idea is inmates brought back into custody for substance abuse, etc. can have a treatment class, training and rehab. They get points for completing those so they might be released early.”

Without the program inmates can wait up to three months to meet with the parole board to become eligible for the classes, he said. “They’re basically counting time. They don’t get any rehab or other programs.”

If they’re picked up by AP&P (Adult Probation and Parole) and qualify they arrange for a transfer, said Sparks. “They can start the program immediately with classes and services and a rehab program within a week. The goal is to make better citizens that make better choices and do it more quickly which is better for the community.”

Currently there are six to 10 incarcerated inmates in the program, he said. “We have in house counselors, an AP&P class and Davis Behavioral Health teaches some. The closer they get to finishing the classes they can qualify for release sooner. It’s a big issue to them.”

In deciding who takes part in the program, AP&P looks at the inmate’s criminal history and violations, Sparks said. “They screen them to see who they think would be the most successful.”

They look at those who were taking classes when they were incarcerated before and earned early release on probation. “If they’re caught with drugs again and have to come back into custody they want to make sure they have success in the program.”

Sparks said they come and go so the good thing is the program doesn’t necessarily have a start and end. “They don’t have to wait for the next class. It’s a fluid kind of thing with different stages of the program depending on how long they’ve been in custody.”

Eventually they’ll go back to the parole board, he said. “If they need three classes they can get them before they go to the parole board and possibly get released now. It’s a significant savings for us to not keep them in custody for three months and a savings for the taxpayers if we don’t have to care for them.”

Sparks said he believes the reason the Department of Corrections reached out to them to run the pilot program is because they’re a willing partner. “We’re willing to try things that are new. We’re also centrally located along the Wasatch Front. We’ve picked up some inmates for Salt Lake County and we have more space. We’ve run a number of great partnerships which is probably why they decided to do a pilot at our facility.”

They don’t have results yet on how the program is working, he said. “It’s been successful anecdotally. We’ll see if we have the results we expect but so far it seems very successful.”

Hopefully it will expandinto other areas, said Sparks. “It’s a great example of a partnership between us and a governmental agency to work together to improve safety for Davis County. If we pool our resources we can do things much better than have been done in the past.”