Friday, May 8, 2009

The Start of a Discussion - independent housing for felons

There has been a lot of discussion locally about independent housing for recently released felony prisoners. At the heart of the discussion is a non-profit organization called Good Samaritan Home, Inc., which has a website you can visit here.

The Good Samaritan Home is listed as a provider of "Independent Housing" on the Ohio Department of Rehabilitations and Corrections website (here). The website describes "independent housing" as follows:
What is Independent Housing? • A housing initiative launched by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in January 2004. • The Bureau of Community Sanctions has licensed contractors in the Columbus and Lima regions to provide housing and some limited case management for offenders under parole and PRC supervision. • The Department will pay for residence in these facilities for up to 90 days for eligible offenders *If the agency and parole officer request an extension of the 90-days due to extenuating circumstances, i.e. applying for SSI, etc. the BCS Assistant Chief or designee will review that request and may grant an extension as appropriate. *If the offender wishes to remain in the Independent Housing facility after 90-days, he or she may do so providing the Independent Housing agency agrees and the offender can make arrangements to pay for housing.
While the ODRC website lists only one location for the Good Samaritan Home, there are at least two of these homes now.

One question that jumps out: are these convicted felons that were originally from Darke County, or are we actually bringing in convicted felons from others locales?

There are probably other questions and comments - and here is the place to start the discussion. Leave a comment below.

[relevant comments may be copied to this article on the main page]

6 comments:

  1. I would rather not have any of these homes within the city limits. Couldn't you have these in the country where you wouldn't have problems with neighbors, children, schools, etc.?

    Also, why do we need more than one?

    ReplyDelete
  2. What you do for the least of my brothers and sisters, you do unto me. ~ Matthew 25:40.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So how does that really address the location in a rural area vs. in-town?

    And what about other issues - will that Bible verse be the answer for the legitimate concerns of other people who live in the same community?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Some questions to be answered:

    1. Why are these houses in Greenville?
    2. Who owns and benefits from these houses? The government pays, the houses are gaining equity value---for whom?
    3. Are these inmates a danger to the neighborhood? If not, why were they transported from Montgomery (or other) County?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Where does the money go. Are there public records on the finances of these houses?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I thought this was a purely charitable ministry, but it is obvious from that quote that there is some money involved. And the other commenter has a legitimate question about who owns these properties (but wouldn't it be the Samaritan Home charity?).

    ReplyDelete

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