Community Corrections

In the summer of 1999, Sheriff Bellotti opened the Norfolk County Community Corrections Center in Quincy. The Day-Reporting Center, as it is known, reflects the administration's strong belief in community corrections and intermediate sanctions.

The center provides the courts with an alternative to incarceration, thereby alleviating the overcrowding of jails and prisons. The center also puts non-violent offenders into the structured, supervised environment that is necessary to make meaningful lifestyle and behavioral changes.

The center does not house inmates. Instead, it accepts carefully screened offenders at the order of a judge, the probation department or the parole board. The offenders are then required to report to the center for alcohol and drug testing, substance abuse treatment, counseling, basic life skills training, Adult Basic Education classes, English as a Second Language and GED preparation, as well as community service projects.

The center's GED success rate is above 90 percent, and participants have applied to post-secondary programs at Bunker Hill Community College, Franklin Institute, Massasoit Community College, Northeastern University and U-MASS Boston. Well over 150 people have earned their GED through Community Corrections since the program’s inception in 1999

The center also operates the Electronic Incarceration Program, which electronically monitors incarcerated individuals in their homes -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This house-arrest program can monitor up to 150 inmates with intense supervision by trained deputies of the Sheriff's Office. The Electronic Incarceration Program was the first of its type in New England to be accredited by the American Correctional Association (ACA) and is one of only five in the entire United States to earn that status. The program received a 100 percent rating when the ACA returned to re-evaluate it in 2008.

The center is located at 191 Parkingway in Quincy. The primary benefit of the center's location is its close proximity to Quincy District Court, the busiest court in Norfolk County, which is the source of most of the center's referrals.

Finally, because it costs less to supervise offenders than it does to incarcerate them, the Day-Reporting Center alleviates the burden on taxpayers. Additionally, the center frees up valuable jail space for violent offenders.

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