Northwest Kansas is the only community corrections agency in the state with a bond program. The program was put in place in 2007 to help with jail overcrowding, and since then, Director John Trembley says nearly 550 offenders have been released on bond supervision.

While Ellis County still has to jail inmates out of county, allowing some out on bond while waiting for trial, saves the county about $1,200 a month. Trembley says 90 percent of the offenders on bond were eventually sentenced to community corrections.

Northwest Kansas Community Corrections also provides a methamphetamine treatment program, started in 2002. To date there have been 201 addicts in the program.

Trembley says meth is one of the biggest drug problems confronting his department. He says the laws restricting pseudoephedrine have cut down on labs in the area, but the supply is still there.