OUR MISSION

The mission of the Department is to protect the public through court ordered sanctions and offer services that will allow the offender to become a productive member of the community.  The Department will be responsive to the victims of crime, be fiscally responsible with the taxpayer’s money, and promote the highest professional standards.

The process of community supervision in Callahan, Coleman, and Taylor Counties is through the following diversity of functions:

C                   Providing a range of appropriate sentencing alternatives which facilitates the development of appropriate social behavior by offenders, while protecting the public safety and interests of the community.

C            Utilizing the continuum of sanctions based on the assessment of each defendant.

C                  Providing timely, relevant and accurate information to the courts and other community justice agencies for use in the assessment of offenders at both the pre-dispositional and post-dispositional levels of the criminal justice system.

C                   Providing for an efficient and effective community justice system by coordinating the efforts of all participants.

C                   Developing expanded information gathering and analysis to allow for the monitoring of the effectiveness of existing programs and indicating areas of need within the local community justice system.    

C            Promoting support for a broader understanding of community corrections through a more active and effective public relations and information strategy.

This mission statement is based on the premise that community supervision is a viable sanction available to the court, and that community supervision can assist probationers to live a life of freedom through law-abiding behavior and compliance with conditions of supervision.

To accomplish this mission, the department will:

1.         Be characterized by quality, equity and accountability.

-     Supervision of the offender must be provided at the highest level of quality.

-     Assessment of probationer needs and treatment referrals/resources must be orchestrated with equity for all defendants.

-     The department must maintain accountability for demonstrated results and continuous improvement.

2.         Attract, acquire and retain the highest quality personnel.

3.         Be managed and organized to be most effective and efficient.

LONG RANGE GOALS

Our LONG RANGE GOALS are to plan, organize, manage and operate a CSCD that will meet the needs of offenders suitable for our sanctions and protect society.  This will be done through continuation of basic community supervision, supervision by means of intermediate sanctions, as well as developing new and/or additional alternatives to divert defendants from the state Institutional Division and the county jail.  This department's goal is to accept the challenges by providing active intervention to supervise and control the offender in the community, with the desired outcome of decreasing the incidence and impact of crime, resulting in overall cost effective management.

The following are some short term objectives we intend to achieve to keep offenders out of jail and prison to reach our LONG RANGE GOALS:

-      Allow localities to increase the involvement and responsibility in developing sentencing programs that provide effective sanctions for criminal defendants;

-      provide increased opportunities for criminal defendants to make restitution to victims of crime through financial reimbursement or community service;

-      provide increased use of community penalties designed specifically to meet local needs; and

-      promote efficiency and economy in the delivery of community-based correctional programs consistent with the objectives defined by law.

In addition to crime and recidivism prevention, diversion/deterrence and supervision by means of the Continuum of Sanctions and other programs, the above mentioned short term objectives and LONG RANGE GOALS are and will continue to be enhanced by:

-      staff development and training with Quality Control Management of case management and programs; 

-      development of needed programming in order for the MISSION STATEMENT to be a reality;

-      development of approaches and connections with community resources to provide input and information that will contribute to our objectives, goals, and services;

-      cooperatively work with all agencies to avoid unnecessary duplication of services; 

-      utilize student interns and volunteers to enrich our system; 

-      promote programs that will increase offender awareness of the impetus their crimes have on the lives of victims;

-      communicate to the citizenry that community-based corrections can be profitable for all citizens, and encourage all to join in cooperative action to ensure that everyone will profit;

-      develop community-based intermediate sanctions/sentencing alternatives for dealing with technical violations;

-      examine what works in community corrections and develop strategies for community supervision by monitoring compliance of offenders to conditions of community supervision and carrying out all other judicial orders;

-      provide community supervision enhancement programs and/or services; 

-      provide an appropriate range of sentencing options to the courts to allow for the rehabilitation of offenders in a manner consistent with the cost effective utilization of resources and the safety of the community;

-      provide treatment for the substance-abusing offender;

-      provide treatment for the sex offender; and

-      promulgate public educational awareness regarding the range of criminality and the effective accomplishments of community-based sanctions.

To summarize, our LONG RANGE GOALS represent what we are intending to achieve and/or what we purport to do to keep offenders out of jail and/or prison through sound framework for the practical implementation of a continuum of community sanctions.  We plan to continue providing defendants opportunities to be productive, law-abiding members of society and welcomed participants in the life of the community and repay the victim and/or community for the damage they have done.  This will be done by programs that are designed as prevention incentives for productivity to recidivism disincentives by means of therapeutic justice; literacy/educational skills, life skill strategies, personal adjustment training, alcohol and drug educational awareness and/or treatment, financial management, occupational skills, and experiences in positive environments.