State pays Probation to oversee CIT inmates

NORWICH – Four high-risk sex offenders on probation at the Valley Ridge Center for Intensive Treatment in Norwich have netted $16,000 for the Chenango County Probation Department.

“It was a nice surprise,” Laureen J. Clarke, the department’s director, told supervisors in committee this week. “We don’t often get money from the state.”

The New York State Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives has distributed $1.3 million to counties and New York City depending upon the number of Level 3 Sex Offenders on probation. The money will come to Chenango County in $1,000 quarterly installments, or $4,000 per year, for four years.

Clarke said the CIT has increased the normal number of high-risk offenders in the county. It opened in 2002.