Offender Diversion
Electronic Monitoring
Electronic Monitoring is for pre-sentenced individuals, who the courts want to closely monitor, and helps to ensure individuals appear in court. We also monitor participants who are sentenced to Drug Court on the Program, as well as, participants who are on the Work Release Program.
Food Services
The kitchen staff consists of a Supervisor and four Cooks. Their job consists of cooking, prepping, serving, directing the inmate kitchen trustees, maintaining the equipment and cleanliness of the kitchen, facilitating many special diets, receiving deliveries, and many other behind the scenes responsibilities.
The kitchen staff is assisted by 6 or 7 inmate kitchen trustees per shift, who can earn five good days, with the ability to earn ten more during their thirty-day term. The civilian kitchen staff teaches and directs the trustees on how to work in a food service facility and maintain the health, safety, and cleanliness standards required. The kitchen serves over 249,000 meals per year.
All menu selections are reviewed and approved by the Carroll County Health Department for nutritional quality and compliance with dietary standards. In addition to the regular meals prepared, we also accommodate a number of special diet needs, including diabetic, low sodium, low cholesterol, religious, and food allergies.
Pretrial Services
The Pretrial Services program directly interacts with both the County Circuit Court and the State District Court. Pretrial Services (PTS) is an instrumental part of the Offender Diversion Unit that functions within the Alternative Programs Bureau. This unit is responsible for supervising offenders Court released to the community prior to trial, ensuring that all special conditions of release are met, and screening defendants for use of alcohol and illicit substances. In addition, PTS monitors defendants placed by the Court under Pretrial Electronic Monitoring (PEM), tests Drug Treatment Court (DTC) participants.
Another responsibility of PTS is to provide essential reports and documents directly to the Maryland Division of Parole and Probation and the Parole Commission to expedite the parole hearing process for detention center inmates sentenced to a period of incarceration of six months or more.
The unit provides pertinent information on a defendant's previous criminal history aiding Judges in deciding to release or detain an individual prior to their court date. In addition, a defendant's behavior is monitored through case management until trial. This includes interviews, drug/alcohol screening and preparing reports for court.
Benefits derived from Pretrial include, reduction in housing costs by freeing up space, providing firm supervision and ensuring a high court appearance rate. Pretrial personnel provide over 75 combined years of experience in case management as it relates to the criminal justice field.
Treatment Services
The Treatment Services Unit facilitates and monitors those inmates transferred to court ordered treatment facilities to include; the Mountain Manor Residential Treatment Program, The Mountain Manor Residential Services Program, the Wells House, the Weber Sober Home, New Life for Girls, Gardenia, and Walden Sierra Treatment Center. The Carroll County Health Department provides a team of substance abuse counselors within the Detention Center and is responsible for court ordered substance abuse evaluation (Health General 8505).
The Treatment Services Unit provides a wide range of programs both within the jail as well as out in the community. Some of the programs offered to inmates within the Detention Center are anger management, computer classes, general education (GED), parenting classes, alcoholics anonymous, domestic violence groups, individual counseling, substance abuse treatment, and Bible study. These programs are available to all inmates that meet the criteria, participation is voluntary. When inmates have attained outside clearance, they are evaluated by the treatment services team and scheduled to participate in programs out in the community.
Work Release
The Work Release Unit monitors offenders sentenced to weekends, inmates granted trustee status and work release inmates. Work Release is a sentencing alternative that allows inmates to maintain employment while serving a sentence imposed by the court. They are utilized for work details as deemed appropriate. They have performed work assignments such as landscaping, painting, cleaning offices, snow and ice removal, recycling at the landfill and other projects as assigned. The project provides services for state, county and non-profit organizations. Participants receive a prorated reduction of time off their sentence for satisfactory job performance.
The Carroll County Detention Center provides inmate trustee labor in a cooperative effort with County Government to help defer operating costs while providing invaluable work experience for inmates preparing to return to the community. The Trustee program provides a savings to the county of approximately $200,000.00 per year in manual labor costs. Many of these projects would not be completed without the use of inmate labor. The coordinator keeps a record of the service hours performed. Inmates receive a (5) day reduction of time off their sentence for each month of satisfactory job performance.