EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — The County’s “El Paso Promise” program is entering a new phase of expansion, with county officials saying the growing effort is largely supported by private partners and requires limited taxpayer funding.
The program is moving into Phase Two, expanding services aimed at helping justice-involved individuals avoid returning to the criminal justice system through education and job training.
The expansion now includes participants over 28 years old.
El Paso County Criminal Justice Director Catherine Jones said county funding for the program covers only one position.
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“The El Paso Promise program is funding only one position,” Jones said.
Jones said the position costs “approximately with salary fringe, around $70 thousand, and that is the entire county’s input into this program.”
Jones said most of the program’s support comes from private partners, including Project Arriba, the Ysleta Community Learning Center and the Center for Employment Training.
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Jones said the only county budget increase is for the lead program coordinator.
Jones also said it costs 63 cents a day to supervise a participant, compared with the thousands it can cost to keep someone in jail.
El Paso County Commissioner Sergio Coronado, who led the initiative, called the program a model for the state and country and said it saves money by keeping people out of jail and prison.
“It’s a great investment in terms of the amount of money that we save from keeping individuals from going into jail or going into our prison,” Coronado said.
It’s just a, you know, it’s really a cost-conscious saving for not just the county but our entire community.
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Jones said taxpayers “are going to feel and have probably already felt a payback that is threefold in cost savings of incarceration, in arrests and ultimately what we’re doing is we are producing tax pay residents for this county.”
Jones said the program’s success rates are nearly 100 percent.
Details on how to apply are available at epcounty.com/promise.
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