Sheriff’s OUI Program Marks Success

New statistics released by the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office shows that the sheriff’s OUI program has been successful over its first five years in action.

Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings said the program “reflects a wider culture within this institution.”

“We try to get inmates to use their time productively instead of languishing in a cell. And like much of our programming, this one is constructed on what’s proven to work best,” Sheriff Cummings said.

In four classes per week over three months, the program works with inmates who have been incarcerated because of multiple drunk driving arrests. The inmates who agree to participate in the program spend the rest of their day working on-site with the Sheriff’s grounds, maintenance and motor-pool crews.

According to the figures, only 10 percent of inmates who have participated in the program have returned to the correctional facility after their release.

Recidivism nationally stands at 62 percent, though the general rate at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility is 30 percent. “The 10 percent for this program is clearly better than that,” Sheriff Cummings said.

The county correctional facility’s overall recidivism rate stands at about 30 percent, considerably lower than the national rate, according to the sheriff.

The program usually has between four and eight participants.



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