MANSFIELD — Richland County Common Pleas Court Adult Probation and their counterparts in Mansfield Municipal Court have always worked well together, officials said Tuesday.
But that cooperation was streamlined more a few months ago when the two departments began utilizing the same GPS-monitoring company for individuals under court supervision during the pretrial phase of their respective cases.
That was the message from J.J. Bittinger, director of court services/chief probation officer for Richland County, and Angie Lindsay, chief probation officer for Mansfield Municipal Court.
The two leaders and members of their staff, along with Common Pleas Court Judge Brent Robinson, attended a Richland County Board of Commissioners meeting during which the three-member panel proclaimed July 21 to 27 as “Pretrial, Probation and Parole Week” in the county.
(Below is a PDF showing a proclamation Richland County commissioners issued Tuesday marking July 21-27 as pretrial, probation and parole week in the county.)
Bittinger said a few months ago the county made the switch to the same monitoring system used by the City of Mansfield.
It comes into play when a defendant is charged with a felony offense that begins in Municipal Court. When the case is then bound over to Common Pleas Court, that would have required a change in GPS monitoring/tracking in the past.
“They would come over here and we would have to cut theirs off and put ours on. If there was an issue there, that if we didn’t have one, then the person had to stay in jail for a couple of days until we got a new one in,” Bittinger said.
He said the price of the system is roughly the same as the county was paying.
“Now it’s all a seamless transition,” he said. “They bring them over. We transfer the device right to our pretrial supervision personnel.
“As far as us working together, it’s pretty seamless. We’ve always got along really well and have a good working relationship,” Bittinger said.
Lindsay quickly agreed.
“We also supervise some courtesy cases, because we do have some specialized dockets, (like) Veterans Court and Mental Health Court. So we’re in constant contact. We supervise those cases for (county adult probation),” Lindsay said.
Robinson praised the quality work done in the probation department.
“There was a time when it was more send people to prison. Now we try to deal with the issues that they have. Most of the people that come in front of me are (suffering from) substance abuse and mental health (issues). That’s really what’s causing them to commit their criminal activity,” the judge said.
“There are a certain segment that are just bad, bad dangerous people. Those are the kind of people that you lock up as long as you can to protect the public and punish them.
“But the vast majority are people who are either using substances, that’s why they’re doing criminal behavior, or they’re having mental-health issues and that’s why they’re doing their criminal behavior.
“We have tried very hard to deal with those issues,” Robinson said, complimenting the work done in specialty courts.
“If you lock somebody up that has a substance-abuse or mental-health issue, you’re keeping the community safe for the amount of time that they’re locked up, but you’re not addressing the underlying problem,” he said.
“When they get out, they’re going to probably come right back and be what I call ‘repeat customers of the court,'” the judge said.
“The (probation) staff has done a really good job of focusing on those things,” Robinson said.
Lindsay also complimented the work of new Mansfield Municipal Court Judges Michael Kemerer and Judge David Badnell, both of whom took office in January after the November 2023 election.
“In times past, there were people that would come through on certain charges and basically receive a slap on the wrist. That is no longer happening,” she said.
“Our judges are holding them accountable and that’s what probation is all about. It’s about accountability. They’re holding everyone accountable for their own actions and that’s what we like to see,” Lindsay said.
Bittinger said his department had 69,000 “contacts” with defendants in 2023, including more than 10,000 home visits. They also administered more than 11,000 drug tests last year.
“We’re always checking on employment. We’re checking on social services. We’re checking on whatever we can follow up with and that’s where the 69,000 contacts come in.
“We used to joke around that we were going to (a defendant’s) house so many times a month that the family would set us a dinner plate for dinner at times because they expect us to show up sometimes,” Bittinger said.
