Eighty-four percent of the offenders exiting the Piedmont Court Services program for the 2014-15 fiscal year successfully completed all of the court-ordered and program obligations, the organization’s annual report said.

“The agency’s success … reflects well on the agency’s purpose and operations,” Piedmont Court Services Director Renee Trent Maxey wrote. “Significant, we believe, are the tremendous savings of taxpayer dollars which result from the placement of appropriate adult non-violent offenders in this program.”

Maxey added that it is “notable, too,” that the services collected $54,362 in restitution and that 21,846 hours of community services were performed for the fiscal year.

Lunenburg County Administrator Tracy Gee shared the report with the board of supervisors during their Thursday, Dec. 10, meeting. Gee noted that the success rate is especially good considering most of the offenders have jobs and must do their mandated work during work hours.

Piedmont serves Amelia, Appomattox, Buckingham, Charlotte, Cumberland, Lunenburg, Nottoway, Powhatan and Prince Edward counties.

Alvester L. Edmonds, a county supervisor and chairman of the Piedmont Community Criminal Justice Board, noted that local probation agencies are “less costly than incarceration and offer supervision, structure, services and a range of mandated obligations for participating offenders.”

“In addition,” he continued, “while protecting society and striving to reduce the number of repeat offenders, local probation agencies save taxpayer dollars by leaving jail beds to be filled by violent offenders.”