Jun 15, 2021 6 min read

More than two decades ago, Washington County’s Community Services and Furlough Into Service programs, which allow criminal defendants to volunteer to pay off their fines and court-related fees, received statewide accolades for their approach to the justice system.

The programs won the Pennsylvania Governor’s Award for Innovative Community/Governmental Initiatives in 1999 under then Republican governor Tom Ridge a few years after the system was implemented.

But now a different Republican state official has concerns about the widespread use of the program and the number of people who are eligible, claiming it should be reserved only for those who cannot afford to pay financial penalties associated with their crimes.

State Auditor General Timothy DeFoor released a report Friday on how the county’s judges are implementing community service options and found that the program led to a loss of $1.56 million in potential revenue from 2016 to 2019, including more than $500,000 that could have been paid to the state. DeFoor said his office found 3,420 cases of adjustments in the county during the four-year period, which was “short-changing taxpayers” of potential revenue used for victims’ services and police training programs.

While DeFoor praised the community service program, he said it should only be permitted for those who are determined to be indigent following a hearing before a judge.

But Peter Marcoline, a criminal defense attorney who has practiced in Washington County for 18 years, said he’s never had a client attend one of those hearings to determine whether a defendant should be admitted into the program. Instead, most people are permitted to participate after applying for the program, regardless of their income or financial status, Marcoline said.

“I think it’s a good public service,” Marcoline said. “The question is whether it’s opened up more, is that in compliance with (state rules on) income requirements for defendants to complete community service?”

While defending clients in Allegheny, Greene and Westmoreland counties, he said it’s unusual for people to enroll in similar community service programs because they typically have the financial means to pay off fines and court costs. But even if they did apply, they must undergo a hearing to determine their eligibility, which Marcoline said he’s never experienced in the Washington County Courthouse.

“I don’t recall ever having any determination or an argument that a person was indigent and should be afforded community service,” Marcoline said. “I think the auditor general is taking exception to how many people are doing it.”

The Community Services program is under the Probation Services Department in the courthouse and allows adults convicted of crimes to work off their fines, fees and court costs at the state minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. The Furlough Into Service program, or FITS, permits nonviolent offenders who are housed at the Washington County jail – including those sentenced to serve weekends or work release – to work off fines at the same hourly wage rate, according to the program’s website.

People typically volunteer for nonprofits, government entities, churches or senior centers by working on the program’s “Community Service Work Crew.” In most cases, participants collect litter, do yard work or perform small construction projects. The program’s website touts one example of its work showing photos of the remodeling of the Slovan Volunteer Fire Department’s office space.

Canonsburg Mayor Dave Rhome said the program has saved borough taxpayers an untold amount of money over the years while beautifying his town. People working on their community service hours pick up roadside litter, sweep borough parking lots, wash police cars, help the fire department and clean up the municipal building, he said.

“It’s quite a good program, run extremely well,” Rhome said. “We’re every proud to have those folks come into our community.”

How the program is administered or why so many people are permitted to participate in it in Washington County compared to neighboring counties is not clear. DeFoor blamed the county’s judges for the wide parameters for eligibility, although he did not elaborate on how it has operated in the county for so long with different jurists and president judges moving through the courthouse over the years.

Workers in the Community Services and FITS office in the basement of the courthouse directed a reporter Monday to speak with Court Administrator Patrick Grimm, who said there are “multiple avenues” to enter the program, including written petitions and in-person hearings. He said most people who are offered the community service option in lieu of paying fines and court costs have public defenders because they cannot afford a private attorney. Their sentencing serves as the hearing that allows them into the community service program, Grimm said.

Grimm added that the decision last month to move the collections staff from the Clerk of Courts into the Adult Probation Office will help ensure the people who cannot afford to make payments are in the community service program.

“With the probation department in charge of the collections functions for the county, the whole process is something they will review and decide if there are improvements to make or any changes, depending on the process you’re looking at,” Grimm said.

Marcoline said the merits of the program and how it is run shouldn’t be questioned, but he does not know how the decisions are made to enroll people in it.

“I think it’s a good program,” Marcoline said. “I’ve never seen an internal issue with the service defendants are providing.”

Just before the coronavirus pandemic took hold of the region last spring, Rhome said he knew of one man who devoted 700 hours of community service by riding a bus to the borough each day to work from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. He said people who are devoted to helping local communities should be praised, although he wondered if the auditor general’s report could put the program in jeopardy.

“It would be a total disappointment, not just to Canonsburg, but to all of those communities that rely on volunteerism,” Rhome said. “Folks who have done something wrong and they’ve worked out that plea bargain, if you will, with the judge and court system. As far as I’m concerned, it’s worked very well and I’d be disappointed if it did go away.”