The Greene County supervisors were updated on the activities of Boone/Greene County Probation when they received a request for a new service agreement at their Feb. 18 meeting.
Diane Hinderaker reported B/G County Probation is currently serving 87 Greene County clients. The total for 2024 was 95, with most of those involving charges of operating while intoxicated, drug offenses, domestic abuse or assault.
The non-profit agency served a total of 154 Greene County clients in 2024, up from 114 in 2023. Hinderaker reported 4 percent recidivism for Greene County clients and 6 percent recidivism for Boone County clients. Hinderaker called the Greene County rate “pretty fantastic.”
The total annual contract for FY 26 will be $44,267, an 8 percent increase over the current year. Hinderaker attributed the increase to increased usage, including increased drug testing; increased merchant fees for electronic payments; and increased payments for staff mileage reimbursement.
County attorney Thomas Laehn said that actual increase in the Boone/Greene County Probation budget is 25 percent, but he negotiated Greene County’s share down to 8 percent.
Hinderaker reminded the supervisors of the positive impact of Boone/Greene County Probation. Prior to contracting with Boone County Probation, persons who were sentenced to informal probation had very little, if any, supervision. Persons placed on probation to Boone/Greene County Probation see a probation officer once a month. The probation officers not only assure that persons are complying with court orders, but they also can coordinate services in matters of food insecurity, housing, child care or earning a GED. “We’re able to work with a lot of pieces at one time, all those pieces that lead people to crime,” Hinderaker said.
“I don’t think we can go back to the days of having unsupervised probation,” Laehn said. “That was part of the problem here, that hundreds of people were being sentenced to probation and there was no accountability, no consequence.”
He added that the alternative to B/G County Probation would be for the sheriff’s office to hire two probation officers. That would come at a much higher cost to the county. Conservation director Tanner Scheuermann and county naturalist Jacob Fernholz gave an update on the naturalist position, a new one to the county. Fernholz has accepted pelts of several animals such as buffalo, elk and wolves that were found in the county but not longer are. He uses them in classroom presentations. He has made several school presentations, and is expanding his library through donations of unused materials from peers in other counties.
