By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Central Kansas Community Corrections Director Amy Boxberger closed a presentation at Wednesday's Barton County Commission meeting with a thought: Why do some choose the more difficult road? And why is it assumed everyone always sees two roads? That summed up a new theory behind the state's approach to community corrections. Boxberger detailed some of those changes.
"What the research says: supervision alone will not be sufficient to change behavior," she said. "Punishment programs do not work to change behavior. We need services that are behavioral in nature."
Boxberger interned with Community Corrections while in college, then took a position with the organization upon graduating 25 years ago. She said the early years were compliance or bust, but those referee-style practices were ineffective. Clients kept returning, and staff turnover was high from burnout.
"By this time, I had recommended that many people went to prison," she said. "Much to my dismay, those former clients kept coming back. The ones that went to prison were worse off than before. We continue to work with the Department of Corrections to align with evidence-based principles. It hasn't happened overnight."
Boxberger oversees the program in the 20th Judicial District, which includes Barton, Ellsworth, Russell, Rice, and Stafford counties. The population of the district is 51,000, but the community correction population is just 300. Boxberger said the cost of incarcerating a person for one year is $30,000, compared to $2,200 for a year in community corrections.
"When people are incarcerated, it's not only a drain on the judicial system, but these people are not working," she said. "They're not paying taxes. They're not contributing to the community. Their families are more likely to rely on public benefits. Their families continue to have the trauma of an absent parent."
Boxberger said the state has moved away from gut feelings about how the justice system should work and into empirical evidence. Community Corrections shifted to a program called Evidence-Based Practices. Focuses include assessing client-specific risks, enhancing motivation, practicing skills like communication and anger management, and increasing positive reinforcement.
"Once upon a time, back when I started, we used to try to farm people out to different communities," Boxberger said. "It's not working here, go somewhere else. It doesn't work. They're from here. Their families are here. They need to come back. We need to work with the stuff that's here and achieve getting through the muck of it all so you can be a good parent and good taxpayer for the community."
Surveys from clients indicate 45 percent have been incarcerated at least 10 times. Seventy-five percent agree they have an alcohol or drug problem. Seventy-three percent agree someone in their family has a drug or alcohol problem. But 89 percent of respondents disagreed with the notion that those people cannot be helped.
From the shift, CKCC has been behind several community programs, including a behavioral health advisory council, the Core Community Poverty Resolution Program, and a fatherhood initiative with the theme that strong dads make strong kids. Rise Up Central Kansas pushes prevention, intervention, and resilience information out to the community, and Rise Up Heart helps those with substance abuse disorders with transportation and mobile meetings. In November, the Center for Counseling & Consultation began its Jail Program to introduce services in four area county jails.
Boxberger said CKCC is the step between court and prison. Since 2015, the programs have been around 75 percent successful, meaning just 25 percent of those ordered to probation ultimately wind up in prison.