PRESS RELEASE
MARION-Administrative Judge W.T. Edwards, of the Marion County Common Pleas Court General Division, is pleased to announce that the Marion Common Pleas Adult Probation Department, under his management, has been awarded three grants totaling more than 1.1 million dollars in grant funds to the Court/Probation Department over the next two year grant period.
Judge Edwards expressed, “The Court recently won approval for the Justice Reinvestment and Incentive Grant (JRIG) in the amount of $421,840 after a great deal of negotiation with the Bureau of Community Sanctions (B.C.S.).
This grant also comes with fewer restrictions regarding the sentencing of felons and probation violators than previous versions of the grant.
Together with the two year Intensive Supervision Probation (I.S.P.) grant of $671, 504. and a two-year Pre-trial grant of $87,912., both of which were renewed earlier this year. The Court/ Probation Department has been awarded more than 1.1 million dollars in grant funds over the next two-year grant period. With shrinking grant dollars across the state due to the Covid-19 economy, I am particularly proud of the efforts of my new Chief Probation Officer, Jennifer Ryan, her Deputy Chief Lisa Meddles, and the Court’s Fiscal Officer Kara Sheers. Deputy Chief Meddles, in particular, took on this challenge when others doubted Marion would receive these grants. I also personally engaged in negotiations with B.C.S. management when others thought such discussions would be fruitless. I also want to thank the Marion County Commissioners for approving these grants, which will temporarily relieve some financial burden on our community. I believe the grants will permit us to continue the same high level, important work that the Marion Adult Probation Department has been doing during my term.”