Christian County Fiscal Court and the 3rd Judicial Circuit are continuing their mission to offer alternatives to incarceration, approving available grant funds for ankle monitors.
According to a news release, this partnership has existed between the Fiscal Court and the local courts for ten years now through the Community Corrections Grant program. The fiscal court received $50,000 from the grant program for the 2025-26 fiscal year and those funds will be utilized to facilitate electronic supervision via ankle monitoring, as well as drug screenings for offenders as so ordered in Christian County Circuit Court.
The grant is made available to qualifying individuals who are in the court system, and allows them to continuing serving their community rather than sitting in a jail cell. It lets them maintain their employment, seek treatment and counseling as needed and take steps towards successful re-entry into society.
In 2024 into 2025, electronic monitoring through the grant program resulted in the diversion of more than 3,600 jail days for 57 participants. With traditional jail housing costing more than $40 a day per inmate, those diversions amounted to a total cost avoidance of more than $147,000 for the county.
Chief Circuit Judge John Atkins says, “Providing these individuals with the opportunity to continue going to work, supporting their families, continuing their education and seeking treatment, could be the ticket to putting them back on the road to success. We have seen multiple positive outcomes through the program that likely would not have happened if the people involved had been in jail for months, instead of in society under court supervision.”