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Job postings point to intervention facility, not re-entry center

by CRAIG NORTHRUP
Staff Writer | September 24, 2020 1:00 AM

A private company that provides correctional facilities and services to jurisdictions around the country opened a vein of suspicion this week after advertising job openings in the Coeur d’Alene area.

The GEO Group, a private correctional corporation founded in 1984, posted employment opportunities for a new facility in the Coeur d’Alene area, this while a debate continues to smolder over the Idaho Department of Correction narrowing in on opening a prison re-entry center in North Idaho.

The IDOC announced in 2019 it was considering Kootenai County as a possible location for a 130-bed facility, prompting swift backlash from locals condemning a potential prison re-entry center in the county’s backyard. Online petitions circulated through social media, garnering enough attention to take the matter to the ballot box.

In-person petitions eventually put the issue before voters in a non-binding advisory vote during the May election. Of the 32,239 votes cast in the primary, 25,309 — or 78.5% — voted against the prison release facility.

GEO’s Sept. 14 posting for five different positions — program managers, assistant case managers, case managers, substance abuse counselors and employment coordinators — is unrelated to the possible re-entry center, according to the IDOC. GEO Care, a subsidiary of the GEO Group that focuses on reducing recidivism, was awarded a contract last week by the IDOC to develop a connection and intervention center for those already on parole or probation.

While connection and intervention centers provide transitional housing, their main function is to serve as a contact point for rehabilitating parolees at risk of re-offending. Those services include counseling, drug testing and outreach. Jeffrey Ray, public information officer for the IDOC, said the connection centers are meant to re-direct parolees on the verge of re-offending after release.

"IDOC has recently signed a contract with GEO Care … to provide statewide services as part of the newly-created connection and intervention stations,” Ray said. “These CISs will provide services for people who are sentenced directly to probation and for people who are already on probation or parole in the community but struggling to comply with the conditions of supervision.”

The still-hypothetical re-entry center, on the other hand, would serve as something closer to a halfway house, where those released from prison are sent while they are educated or trained upon re-entering society and the workforce. Ray said no decision has yet been made on the details of a re-entry center in North Idaho.

Kathy Prizmich of the GEO Group said the soon-to-be CIS will provide a service that will make the hardships of parolees and probationees maneuvering through the criminal justice system easier to maintain.

“GEO Re-entry Services is excited to be partnering with the Idaho Department of Correction on the establishment of connection and intervention stations in various locations throughout the state,” Prizmich said. “The CIS is a day treatment center that will serve as a one-stop shop to provide community-based case management, group and individual behavior change programming and accountability for individuals in the justice system who call Coeur d'Alene home, with the ultimate goal of reducing recidivism and enhancing public safety.”

The contract between IDOC and the GEO Group calls for GEO to begin offering services within 90 days, Ray said, so the connection center will open by the end of 2020, barring unforeseen delays.