MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Earlier this month Berkeley Day Report Center Director Tim Czaja was concerned about their case load.
He had told WEPM news his staff were already stretched thin keeping up with more than 100 active cases.
Czaja said during Panhandle Live Thursday they have reached the tipping point and can no longer accept new referrals until they get new staff hired and trained.
He said that with 110 active cases and 19 outstanding referrals ready to get started the job simply could not be done properly.
“We can’t allow the quality of services that are provided to suffer for quantity,” he said.
The center is currently staffed to serve 80 clients who are referred to the program as an alternative to incarceration.
Czaja said hiring and training more staff will take money.
“We have two grant requests that have been made that we should be receiving responses to within the next month or so,” he said. “If those grants are awarded we can bring on, hopefully, five different staff members.”
The staffing includes peer counselors, case managers and staff members to help with transportation services and drug screenings.
He’d like to see the money here and the positions filled as soon as July 1.
Meanwhile the Berkeley County Council is looking to find new space to house the center.
Czaja said they are exploring a number of options for the short term such as using modular trailers.
Long term fixes include everything from renovating a county owned building to building a brand new structure.
Still, Czaja said, the immediate need is people.
He said statistics from The Baltimore-Washington High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) show that day report programs reduce the recidivism rate.
It’s also a significant savings for the county versus housing inmates at the regional jail.