Pay Up and Recover

With the passage of Proposition 36, the Tulare County Recovery Court program was implemented in 2001by the Tulare County Probation Department. This measure allowed non-violent drug possession offenders to qualify for probation in lieu of incarceration. Under this measure, if the defendant fails to complete this program or violates any conditions of probation, then probation can be revoked. The defendant may be required to serve jail time.

The passage of Proposition 47 in 2014 required that money saved as a result of this measure be spent on school truancy and dropout prevention, victim services, mental health, drug abuse treatments, and other programs designed to keep offenders out of prison and jail. This measure classifies petty theft, receiving stolen property and forging or writing bad checks of $950 or less as a misdemeanor offense.

Tulare County Probation Department and the Recovery Court: A. Tulare County Recovery Court is a 16 week outpatient drug rehabilitation program. Medi-Cal covers the $900 - $1000 outpatient drug rehabilitation program costs, while the defendant pays approximately $70 -$90 a month in drug testing for 16 weeks. The defendant then transitions to After Care and the costs for drug testing are approximately $50-$70 a month. If a defendant returns to drug rehabilitation for 16 weeks on a first or second probation violation, monthly drug testing frequency and costs will increase from 5-7 drug tests to 7-9 drug tests. B. Tulare County Recovery Court has 200-226 probationers at any one time. C. The Recovery Court Judge has the discretion on a third probation violation to allow a defendant to stay in Recovery Court, or to send the defendant to the more expensive Drug Court program. D. The Cost of Supervision for the Recovery Court program is a $20 per month fee, for each qualifying defendant.

Random Drug Testing and the third-party testing facilities: A. The Tulare County Probation Officer can check drug test results online through the AverHealth Drug Testing system. B. Probation violations include a missed test recorded as Failure To Appear (FTA). C. A positive drug test is a violation of probation. D. Drug testing is done every Friday at 8:30 a.m. in Visalia and on Thursday’s in Porterville at the AverHealth testing facilities.

Tulare County Probation Accounting and Collections Department: A. There are five Probation Claim Investigators, three Accounting Clerks, and one Supervisor in the TCPACD. They worked on approximately 30,000 accounts for fiscal year 2018 including both juvenile and adult probation cases. Approximately 20,000 were delinquent accounts. Approximately $9.4 million is attributed to unpaid adult probation obligations. B. Approximately one percent of debt obligations will be collected by the California Franchise Tax Board (CFTB). The CFTB collects by way of liens on defendant property, checking account or wage garnishments. There are two Probation programs serviced by the CFTB for Tulare County: a. Intercept Program including amounts more than $10 delinquent and no payments made in 30 days. b. Court Ordered Debt Collections including amounts of $100 or more delinquent and no payments made in 90 days. C. In Recovery Court, the defendant has two financial payment options: 1. Make a one- time payment of all court ordered restitution and other administrative costs, including any prior offenses. 2. Pay in installments. D. A defendant who claims he/she does not have the ability to pay monthly installment payments must complete the Financial Evaluation Form with TCPACD. A financial assessment will be completed which may modify an installment payment plan. E. TCPACD makes daily calls to defendants who are delinquent in their payments. They advise them that the case may be sent to the CFTB and wage garnishments and tax liens may be pursued. They do not advise defendants that delinquencies will be reported to the major credit bureaus. F. California state procedures are followed by the TCPACD to verify information and to apply monies on named accounts. CONCLUSION: TCPACD is meeting California State and local procedures pertaining to the collection of delinquent court ordered debts, restitutions, and fines.