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Luzerne County officials said they are scrambling to come up with plans to cover several programs long handled by Catholic Social Services due to the nonprofit’s abrupt termination notice.
The issue came to light during this week’s county budget work session, when county Correctional Services Division Head Mark Rockovich said Catholic Social Services recently informed the county it will stop providing a valuable prison pretrial program the end of this year.
County Manager C. David Pedri told council the nonprofit “kind of surprised” the county with a letter last week disclosing its plans to end several county contracts dating back decades. These programs include a myriad of services related to drunken driving cases.
“That has thrown us off a little bit regarding our timeline here,” Pedri said.
The Diocese of Scranton had announced in late October it would stop providing drug and alcohol services in Wilkes-Barre and Milford after 2019 based on its review of the nonprofit’s finances. The decision was made recently and swiftly communicated to impacted entities, diocesan spokesperson Eric Deabill said Thursday.
“We tried to give as much notice as we could,” Deabill said, stressing the nonprofit will continue providing programs for the homeless and needy, including operation of the St. Vincent de Paul Kitchen in Wilkes-Barre.
Pedri said impacted county departments are working on options to provide the services in-house or obtain them from other entities with little or no negative impact to the general fund operating budget — plans that will be discussed in upcoming budget sessions. Grant funding is involved in some programs, he said.
In correctional services, about 150 people would have to be incarcerated in the county prison system at any given time without the pretrial program, leading to overcrowding and higher expenses, Rockovich told council.
Correctional services is set to pay the nonprofit $290,000 to provide the pretrial services in 2019, the contract says.
The pretrial program allows eligible low-income people charged with crimes to stay out of prison while awaiting adjudication when they cannot afford to post lower-level bail, Rockovich said. If Catholic Social Services interviews the accused and agrees to take on their supervision as bail agent, participants must report to the nonprofit weekly for drug testing and to show proof of compliance with counseling and other requirements, he said.
Pedri said many other counties rely on their probation departments for pretrial services, which is a possibility under court review here. Another option is adding the service at the county’s day reporting center in Wilkes-Barre, which is operated by the GEO Group, he told council.
Other impacts
The county probation department relies on Catholic Social Services to provide classes those convicted of drunken driving must complete to restore their driver’s licenses, county Court Administrator Michael Shucosky said Thursday.
The nonprofit also handles some court drug testing and monitoring for first-time DUI offenders while they are on probation seeking future expungement of their criminal records, Shucosky said, noting the county has more than 900 DUI arrests annually.
Court officials are considering absorbing the services in-house with additional probation department staff, although the number of new potential workers is still unclear, Shucosky said. He expects the entire cost would be offset by revenue from fees that carry a high collection rate because most want their driver’s licenses back.
Probation may be more suited to handle the work than an outside entity because court petitions must be filed if offenders are caught violating restrictions, he said.
County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis said she wants her office to take over several of the nonprofit’s programs because they benefit the public and law enforcement. However, she first wants to verify corresponding grant funding would continue so the county won’t be burdened with additional expenses.
“Until we get a definitive yes, we’re in limbo,” Salavantis said. “These services have to continue. They are important to our law enforcement.”
One is a DUI processing center run by Catholic Social Services and housed at the Wilkes-Barre Police Department, she said. Developed through a community coalition in the 1980s, the center helps free up area police by conducting testing of DUI suspects that meets court standards, reducing the number of offenders who request jury trials, officials have said.
The other programs involve public safety education and support for DUI checkpoints and other types of special patrols, Salavantis said.