Merced County is partnering with GEO Reentry Services to launch three new programs designed to help reduce pressure on the county jail and offer effective alternatives to detention. The programs will complement the day reporting center run by GEO Reentry that was opened in Merced in 2008.
The three new programs are the Warrant Reduction Advocacy Program, an in-custody Jail Reentry program and a satellite day reporting center in the previously under-served Los Banos, Calif., region.
The Warrant Reduction Advocacy Program uses the resources of the Merced County DRC to lower the frequency of county court order violations. The WRAP case manager, housed in the DRC, works with offenders on appearance plans designed to encourage compliance with court orders. This effort helps reduce costly and time-consuming program failure cases to appear in the court.
The in-custody treatment program focuses on reaching offenders while still in jail to change criminal thinking as early as possible. The probation department and sheriff’s office have partnered to open and operate the in-custody program at the Merced County Jail. Up to 50 participants receive reentry programming such as life skills, behavior-change counseling and post-release resources. Participants may continue the program at the DRC after release.
The third initiative is to open a satellite DRC in Los Banos, offering for the first time day reporting programming for high-risk offenders in West Merced County. The staff at the Los Banos DRC will provide similar services and programs as the main center in Merced.
Read more about GEO Reentry’s approach to non-residential reentry.
Read more about GEO Reentry’s approach to in-custody treatment