Pulaski County has been awarded nearly $56,000 from the Indiana Department of Correction, to help launch a pretrial release program. Superior Court Judge Crystal Brucker Kocher told the county commissioners Monday that counties are required to have pretrial programs in place by 2020. “So regardless of whether or not we received any funding, we were going to have to put this in place,” she explained, “so this is a huge benefit to our county because now, we can hire an employee to take care of these responsibilities at no cost to our county.”
Kocher said she’s working with the local community corrections board to implement the program and find an entry-level probation officer to administer the required assessments. “We still will have to implement what we are calling a coordinator position,” she said, “and we’re hoping to utilize the person who’s going to coordinate for this position, alongside our problem-solving coordinator position, to try to be as efficient as possible about those funds as well.”
Kocher said the funding runs for one year, beginning July 1, but she’s hopeful that grant will be renewed each year going forward.
