Deferred sentencing project in limbo

Like too little jam spread over a giant slice of bread, funds for the Hancock County Deferred Sentencing Project just aren’t reaching far enough.

As it is, the court-ordered alternative to prison for drug offenders has been operating on grants, donations and volunteered time since it started more than two years ago.

Ten offenders have graduated from the program, which takes a minimum of one year to complete, and 15 others are now enrolled. It has been so successful that next July the state will take it over as part of its Adult Drug Court, which operates in several other Maine counties.

For the next eight months, however, the deferred sentencing project will have to continue funding itself and, unfortunately, the well is dry.

Dick Dimond, a retired doctor from Southwest Harbor who started the project and leads its steering committee, recently reached out to the county government for help.

Dimond submitted a one-time request for $49,000, but would have been happy with any contribution.

But at a meeting last week, the nine-member Hancock County budget advisory committee, which makes recommendations to the county commissioners, voted to reject Dimond’s request for funding in the 2008 budget. The committee has a long history of denying funding requests to outside agencies and didn’t make an exception for the deferred sentencing project.

“I appreciate the problems that a committee like that has to deal with and I understand their issues, but it’s just not acceptable. We need a commitment to funding right now,” Dimond said Monday by telephone.

The budget committee did, however, vote to allow commissioners to fund the request from unexpended year-end funds from 2007.

“From my perspective, that’s not entirely bad news, but on the other hand, it places us in a very difficult position,” Dimond said.

Hancock County Clerk Cindy Deprenger did not return a call Monday and it was not clear whether the county budget had any funds left over in the 2007 budget.

The Deferred Sentencing Project started in 2005 with about $150,000, most coming from a federal grant and a contribution from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation.

An additional $114,000 has been raised through another foundation grant and a host of smaller contributions from local businesses, organizations and individuals.

That will keep the program running until December. Dimond had applied for several national grants to bridge the gap until July 2008 but has not been successful.

“At this point, there are no real grants left to apply for,” he said. “The fact that the state is taking this over is the strongest endorsement for our program, but it’s absolutely crucial that the clients aren’t interrupted.”

The Hancock County commissioners have until Dec. 15 to adopt the budget for 2008, but Dimond said he didn’t know whether that date applied to unexpended funds from 2007.