Johnson County will keep jail alternatives should state cut funding

IOWA CITY - Johnson County will continue programs aimed at keeping people out of jail even if the department that oversees it has its funding cut by the state.

The Board of Supervisors at a work session Wednesday said they would keep the jail alternatives program at least through fiscal year 2012. Those efforts include mental health screenings and drug court, among others, that officials say help defendants and keep people out of the county's overcrowded jail.

The issue came up because the state is considering cuts that would take more than $2 million from the county's Mental Health and Disability Services department, which oversees the jail alternatives program. One of the ideas for responding to that is cutting the $180,000 spent annually on jail alternatives.

It's not clear what the state will do, so the supervisors said the county would fund it for at least another year, if necessary. They said they'd re-evaluate the program depending on what action the state takes.