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STEUBENVILLE -- Municipal Judge John Mascio said Friday he "couldn't be happier" with the direction the court is moving, and not just because of the way cases are adjudicated in his courtroom.
Mascio said they finished 2024 in the black for the fourth consecutive year, this time by $2,097. He said that is, "quite frankly, extraordinary." Before he took office the court operated at a yearly deficit of $20,000 or more.
"We've been pretty fortunate," he said. "A lot of courts are losing money, but my goal is to at least try to break even. We're not in it for the money, but I do think it's something we need to always consider. What's helped is we've been pretty aggressive in securing grant funding, which really freed up some money for the city, and we've done really well with our collection efforts -- it's all of those things, I think."
Mascio said they now go through the Ohio Attorney General's office to recover unpaid fines and court costs, "historically the hardest accounts to collect and are referred (to them) after all other collection efforts fail, including affording offenders the opportunity to work unpaid fines and costs off through community service."
"In 2024 we received $50,167 in state tax refunds," he said. "That's up from $36,230 the year before and it's the most we have ever collected since we started using the A.G.'s office."
He said they can no longer use driver's license and vehicle registration blocks for offenders who don't pay their fines and costs, "but realistic plans that people of low income can afford have proven effective." He said the court collected more than $98,000 through its on-line payment system.
He said the court handled about 3,137 cases in 2024, all but about 200 of them criminal and traffic offenses. Even though their caseload was up about 314 cases in 2024, Mascio said criminal and traffic offenses were down by 968 cases from five years ago.
"I attribute the decrease to the fact that police are doing a very good job of de-escalating situations rather than simply making arrests, and the court has done a very good job of directing people into mental health, drug and alcohol treatment, (and) assisting them with GEDs and driver's licenses, housing and any other needs that a probationer may have," he said.
"In other words, we have gone from a system of incarceration to a more holistic approach of addressing recidivism," he said. "Probation plans continue to no longer be general, but tailored toward the needs of the probationer."
He pointed out the wages of most probation department employees are covered by grants his staff has "aggressively pursued."
"And we operate our entire mental health court by way of grant funding," he said.
Mascio, though, said addressing the mental health needs of offenders, is straining court resources.
"Many of these offenders are new to our area and have no ties to this community," he said. "Many come to Steubenville because of the many benefits available here."
But those benefits aren't open ended: Guests at the Urban Mission, for instance, can stay for up to 30 days and when they're discharged, "they do not have the resources to get back to where they came from and are often left homeless," Mascio said. "For this population, jail and the state hospital become a revolving door at great expense to the taxpayers."
He said their five-year average for jail costs between 2019 and 2023 was $89,500.
"House arrest and community service are preferred to jail, especially for lower level, nonviolent offenders," Mascio said. "We recognize that incarceration causes people to lose employment, housing and health care. Unfortunately, much of our crime comes from residents of other states and counties and oftentimes (we have) no choice but to incarcerate these offenders. Likewise, when probationers do not fulfill their obligations the court has no option other than incarceration (but) we continue to try and place non-compliant drug and alcohol offenders in residential treatment vs. jail."
He said 38 offenders served a total of 1,256 days of house arrest with electronic monitoring in 2024, much less expensive than the alternative. "It costs (about) $65 per day to house a prisoner in jail," he said. "House arrest saved the city (about) $81,640 in terms of jail costs.
Other highlights:
• Mascio said 667 individuals were referred to the Community Service Program in 2024, with 555 of them (83 percent) participating. Those who did participate logged just under 3,102 hours of community service in every ward of the city, he said.
• Court appointed counsel fees were $36,088, down from the $54,987 it cost five years ago. "The court is typically no longer appointing counsel to represent indigents on low-level, non-violent misdemeanor offenses."
He said his court's numbers don't reflect what the county pays in felony cases.
Mascio also said he would be "remiss if I did not recognize and thank the dedication of our employees as they do an excellent job for both the court and the taxpayers.