Carbon copes with DUI case load

Carbon County is leading the sixth-class counties in the state in the number of DUI cases moving through its court system and the number of caseloads being filed in 2018.

It is also second in the state when it comes to the number of supervision cases its adult probation office handles.

But officials are also working to try to find solutions to these issues that will help those moving through the criminal justice system turn their lives around.

Richmond Parsons, chief of the adult probation office, gave a year-end wrap-up about what is going on in the county Court of Common Pleas and what officials are doing to combat the problems that Carbon County is facing.

“The courts continue to be inundated with a large number of cases,” Parsons said.

In 2018, Carbon County saw approximately 1,600 new case filings of criminal cases. That figure is roughly the same from a year ago.

“We continue to lead sixth-class counties in the number of case filings occurring,” Parsons said. That number is closer to what fifth- and fourth-class counties, which are significantly larger in population, see in court case filings annually.

“Unfortunately, those numbers have a great impact on all the courts and related departments — clerk of courts, sheriff, district attorney, public defender, adult and juvenile probation ... It’s a huge impact to all of us.”

190 cases per officer

For adult probation alone, Parsons’ office is supervising over 2,100 cases, which breaks down to an average caseload of 190 per probation officer.

“(This) is the second highest in the state,” he said of the caseload to probation officer ratio. “It’s not something that you want to be proud of.”

He added that the department has been working with the county to try and figure out some solutions.

In addition, DUI cases continue to be a large number of cases moving through the courts. Of those, many underlying issues are from prescription and nonprescription medications, opiates and methamphetamine.

“Actually, we’re seeing more positive results for meth in urine tests than for opiates right now,” Parsons said.

But all the news wasn’t bad.

On the other side, Parsons reported a number of progresses the county has made to help offenders.

Those include three subcommittees that formed out of the reconfiguration of the county Criminal Justice Advisory Board — court processing, diversion and re-entry.

Through these subcommittees, a new DUI track was implemented last month that takes all DUIs and tries to find a more efficient and effective way of managing those cases.

“We had more people showing up for their required pleas than ever before and we were able to handle a lot more cases than we were able to before,” Parsons said. “It seems to be effective.”

A new automated court notification system, much like a text reminder you receive from your doctor’s office to remind you of an appointment, was also implemented a few months ago.

“We’re now have our defendants receiving court notifications reminding them of court events,” Parsons said. “We are early in the process since this has only been going on a few months but we are seeing a decrease in the number of bench warrants.”

Officials expect to implement another program that aims to divert low level offenders out of the criminal justice system and into treatment programs for opiate and drug programs early this year.

Parsons said the courts had its first graduation of the Veterans Treatment Court, where three people successfully completed the nearly two-year intensive program. Carbon County also received a grant to begin a drug court, which is expected to begin in January.

“We have a lot going on in the courts, and we’re trying to find some solutions to combat these issues,” he said.