Jail Term Hiked for Halfway-House Operator

A Municipal Court judge heaped more punishment Tuesday on the operator of a private work-furlough program and said he may seek a state investigation of for-profit alternatives to overtaxed jails and prisons.

Presiding Judge Thomas Gligorea of the South Bay Municipal Court added 60 days to the 120-day sentence being served by Glen Cornist, a Southeast San Diego man who has owned and run work-furlough centers for county offenders and has long held a contract to run a halfway house for state prison inmates.

In August, Gligorea had sentenced Cornist to spend 120 days at California Halfway House Inc., a downtown San Diego work-furlough center, as part of the punishment for Cornist’s third drunken-driving conviction in slightly more than three years.

But within days of pronouncing sentence, Gligorea learned from Cornist’s estranged wife that Cornist had founded and incorporated the center. Incensed at what he termed a “fraud,” Gligorea ordered Cornist’s arrest and scheduled hearings to investigate his ties to the center.

Testimony at the hearings indicated that Cornist continued to represent himself as the operator of the center even after he supposedly was serving time there. A former employee of California Halfway Houses testified Tuesday that he was fired by Cornist on Sept. 21, two weeks after Cornist’s term at the center commenced.

As the proceedings drew to an end Tuesday, Gligorea said he had doubts about the veracity of some of the witnesses both for and against Cornist. But he ruled that the evidence indicated Cornist had consumed liquor and driven since his conviction--both violations of his probation--and had failed to report on time to California Halfway Houses.

The case could have broader ramifications for the private work-furlough industry, which in its infancy in San Diego County has been beset by a court-ordered investigation, lawsuits between program operators and a share of judicial skepticism.

On Tuesday, Gligorea said the South Bay judges--who typically have made little use of private alternatives in sentencing--were certain to meet soon to discuss a total ban on using the private work-furlough centers.