Includes Job Placement and Vocational Training

Passages

Passages opened in spring 2007 in Billings. It is a program of Alternatives, Inc., and employs approximately 60 people. The programs it offers are for women only and are as follows:

1 Pre-Release

·  Includes job placement and vocational training.

·  Driving is not allowed while in pre-release as ordered by the DOC.

2 Assessment and Sanction Center (ASC)

·  No application required; requires a DOC commit. If you are committed to the DOC and have not yet been screened or accepted to any DOC program, you will go to ASC to be screened and await placement.

·  Average stay in ASC is 49 days, but will usually be no longer than 90 days. If Passages cannot place you after that, it will ask the DOC for an "override."

·  The typical DOC commit will go to ASC to be screened, then to treatment if appropriate (either at Passages or elsewhere), and then to a prerelease center before release onto probation.

·  ASC can be an option for sentencing for misdemeanors through Yellowstone County Justice Court. The city court will not do it b/c the city will not pay.

·  If your client has ever been convicted of escape, she will have to wait at least 2 years after such a conviction to be accepted into Passages prerelease.

·  No visitation allowed except under special circumstances (e.g., if client involved in DN action and gets supervised visits w/child).

3 ADT 60-day inpatient treatment

·  Basic requirement is any need for alcohol or drug treatment and must not have just completed another treatment program elsewhere.

·  Visits are allowed for 2 hours every Sunday. Visitors must be pre-approved.

·  It's possible your client will be rejected because she needs more treatment than Passages can provide. In that case, the screening committee will try to find your client an appropriate placement.

4 Other

·  Passages will pre-screen, meaning you don't have to wait until change of plea or sentencing to begin the screening process. As soon as you have reason to believe your client might want to have Passages as an option, have your client complete the application and forward it to Passages.

·  Passages will accept applications directly; you don't have to forward them through Probation and Parole.

·  Generally, your client may have a hard time getting into a Passages program if she has ever been convicted of arson or stabbing, but there is no crime that is categorically excluded.

·  Your client can, theoretically, get to Passages from prison. Once client hits prison floor she can't go anywhere w/out permission of parole board, but Passages can be an option on parole.

·  Passages' screening committee meets every Tuesday at 3 p.m.