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The Fairfield Municipal Court operates a Community Service Program that offers an option of community service in lieu of jail. The program is only available to certain first-time, nonviolent offenders.

Not only does the program conserve jail space for violent and repeat offenders, community service saves taxpayers $60 per day, the amount it costs to house a prisoner at the Butler County Jail.

As taxpayers save on jail costs, the City, non-profit groups and the schools also benefit from the work undertaken by those in the Court’s Community Service Program. Workers in the program provided 7,264 hours of service in 2006.

Community service workers are not paid for their time. However if those receiving the service had to pay the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour for comparable work, the cost would have been $37,410. A comparable jail sentence would have cost Fairfield taxpayers $54,480 in jail costs (figured at $60/day).