The Lycoming County Bail/Release Program is estimated to have saved the county well over $3 million in 2018, according to a detailed report from Harry Rogers, program manager

Rogers’ report, reviewed at the Lycoming County Prison board meeting Friday morning, estimates the program resulted in a total of 52,367 bed days saved. Bed days are determined by adding up the number of days each client would have been in prison.

“If somebody is on that program for one day, that’s one day that they weren’t in jail. That is considered a bed day saved,” said Warden Brad Shoemaker. “If the person wasn’t on the bail release program, they’d be taking up a bed at the county prison.”

Using the figure of $70 per day, the average daily cost of housing an inmate out-of-county, the program is estimated to have saved the county $3,665,690 or just over $305,000 per month. That’s an increase of $993,160 over 2017’s estimated savings.

“The bail/release program continues to be an extremely successful diversionary program for Lycoming County,” Rogers wrote at the end of his report.

Rogers explained the program before offering a slew of statistics based on 2018 data.

The bail/release program encompasses supervised bail, intensive supervised bail and intensive supervised release, which hosts driving-under-supervision and domestic cases.

Recently, the bail/release program has expanded to encompass all levels of supervision for pre-trial defendants and sentenced inmates, as selected by the courts.

Inmates and defendants must be made eligible for the program by the courts before they can be considered for the program. Once deemed eligible, interviews take place to allow for a risks needs assessment, which consider prior criminal activity, personal background ties and more.

In most cases, homes are investigated to ensure the defendant’s environment meets program standards, he said. The program comes with conditions including drug and alcohol surveillance and reporting requirements.

When conditions are violated, in some instances, bail release officers may schedule a hearing to revoke the bail. Clients in the intensive supervised release program are considered sentenced inmates and violations automatically send them back to prison, Rogers said.

Starting with an average of 123 participants in January 2018, participant numbers fluctuated before gradually climbing, ending the year with an average of 165 in December.

About 45 clients were found to have violated the conditions in a manner worthy of being removed from the program over the course of the year, and seven bench warrants were issued, all of which have been served or vacated, Rogers said.

Of clients in the program in 2018, 71 percent were male and 29 percent were female. About 55 percent were employed, 2 percent were students, 7 percent were disabled and 36 percent were unemployed.

This year, the program averaged 165 clients in January and 173 in February, said Warden Brad Shoemaker.

“That’s an increase, and it’s the highest this program has been since its inception,” he said. “As soon as those two staff members are fully trained, I would anticipate the possibility of seeing those numbers increase beyond that.”

Bed days saved for the month total 4,831.

“It’s one of the tools that’s invaluable to the prison system in being able to help us keep our numbers down,” Shoemaker said. “The amount of inmates that would be in the county prison were it not for the bail/release program would put us in a desperate

situation.”