Pocahontas Day Report Program Saves County Money

Last week, Pocahontas Day Report Center Director Danny Arbogast explained how the Day Report Center helps offenders become productive citizens. In today’s interview, he tells us how the program benefits the community financially.

“I recently did some numbers and stuff for the county” said Arbogast. “And last year from July 2018 to June of 2019, we saved the county over five-hundred thirty-one thousand, five hundred and thirteen dollars and five cents ($531,513.05) in jail fees and also Department of Correction fees. Now, how I came to that number was I looked at all of our moneys going out that it takes to run the Day Report Program. That’s paying our staff, drug screening, our lab fees, our paper -everything. And I also looked at how we saved the county from mowing the grass at Cass and forty-eight dollars and twenty-five cents ($48,25) for jail fees and seventy-five dollars and twenty-three cents ($75.23) per day if somebody is in the Department of Corrections. The jail fees come out of our county taxes and if somebody happens to be put in the Department of Corrections, that comes out of our state taxes, so I looked at the people I have on our program and if they are supposed to be in jail or prison, that’s how much we are saving a day on that individual.”

“If anybody has any questions, you are welcome to call the Day Report here at 304-799-6650, and I will be more then glad to address any questions the community would have about Day Report.”

“Even if someone is looking to go to a rehab center or something, I have a lot of access to help you. Even if you are not on Day Report, I’ll still be able to give you some numbers and set down and if you are wanting help -or a family member needs help, I can give you some advice there, possibly. As well as jobs, we have a lot of jobs. I mean, I have applications here. I can get people a job the next day even if they are not in my program. If they want to stop by here and if they want to ask me if I know anybody that’s got work, I’ll be more then glad to give them an application, and even fax it to Snowshoe, to Interstate, to Judy Fence Craft, to J & P Furniture, to a lot of people who come in here asking us if we have anybody willing to work.”

“But anyway, I can help the community out or if they have any questions,”

“You know, that’s one reason we got the MTA busses started. The Mayor, Sam Felton, headed that up, but that was because we seen individuals that didn’t have a drivers license that needed a way to work but they would get fired because they couldn’t go to work on a continual basis, but now they can ride the MTA bus, save some money, get their drivers license back and then go to work on their own.”

We hope that because of our two recent interviews with Danny Arbogast about the Pocahontas Day Report Center, you have a better understanding about how that program works and how it benefits the community.