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2005-1228-Minutes for Meeting May 25,2005 Recorded 11/1/2005COUNTY OFFICIAL ry NANCYUBLANKENSHIP, COUNTY CLERK V�1 2005'1228 COMMISSIONERS' JOURNAL ,,:,,.,,,,..,,.,..,,..,,,,.,.,, 1110112005 01:30;37 PM 2�05-3228 DESCHUTES COUNTY CLERK CERTIFICATE PAGE This page must be included if document is re-recorded. Do Not remove from original document. V'sOIEs °jG Deschutes County Board of Commissioners 1130 NW Harriman St., Bend, OR 97701-1947 (541) 388-6570 - Fax (541) 388-4752 - ww-mr.deschutes.orc C 2 p{ MINUTES OF DEPARTMENT UPDATE PAROLE & PROBATION DEPARTMENT DESCHUTES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WEDNESDAY, MAY 259 2005 Commissioners' Conference Room - Administration Building - 1300 NW Wall St.., Bend Present were Commissioners Michael M. Daly, Tom De Wolf and Dennis R. Luke. Also present were Mike Maier, County Administrator; Becky Wanless, Charity Hobold, Deb Feffer, Olga Chapman, Vern Yeager, Terry Chubb, Steve Brower, Karen Vinson and Pat Tabor, Parole & Probation Department. No representatives of the media or other citizens were present. The meeting began at 1: 45 p. m. The items discussed are listed on the attached agenda. No formal action was taken by the Board. The meeting adjourned at 2:15 p.m. DATED this 25th Day of May 2005 for the Deschutes CountyABoard of Commissioners. Tom DeWolf, Chair TTE��� Recording Secretary y,)r,ommissioner is R. Luke, Commissioner Bonnie Baker From: Becky Wanless Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 11:19 AM To: Tom DeWolf; Mike Daly; Dennis Luke; Mike Maier Cc: Bonnie Baker Subject: Department Head Agenda Department Head Meeting Parole and Probation Wednesday, May 25, 2005, 1:435 pm, Parole and Probation 'Bethlehem Inn update State Employment Department to "loan" staff *. 2004 P and P Annual Report k $1000 Education Bond from Ben Westlund 5. E -Mail from community member re: website 6. Firearms training 1 r o�Y The Bethlehem Inn "Shelter, Sustenance, Self -Sustainability" PO Box 8540•Bend, Oregon 97708 (541) 322-8768 (Phone) / (541) 318-7336 (Fax) www.bethlehemin".or Families First Program Description Familes First is a two tiered program designed by the Bethlehem Inn to address the needs of local families in crisis. Tier -one is a transitional housing program established January, 2005 in response to families no longer being housed at the Bethlehem Inn's main shelter facility. Two duplexes each containing two bedrooms, two full baths, one kitchens one living room, one garage and one deck were leased from a private landlord with the intention of housing families currently residing at the Bethlehem Inn's main shelter facility at 63360 Britta Street, Bldg 2. In Tier -one client families can reside in transitional housing for a maximum stay of one year. Families pay $350 in rent and one-half of all utilities. Client families receive case management and work towards transitioning out of tier -one and into independent ]living. Tier -two of the Families First program is emergency family housing. The goal of the Bethlehem Inn's emergency housing program is to provide suitable housing for families in crisis for a maximum of twenty-one days. During this time families will not pay rent or utilities allowing them to save money for future housing opportunities. The Bethlehem Inn will provide families staying in the emergency shelter with intense case management allowing them to quickly access system and community services. Thirty-five families per calendar year can be served through the emergency aspect of the Families First program. Anticipated opening date for the Bethlehem Inn emergency family shelter is July 1 la`, 2005. Until the emergency family shelter is established, the Bethlehem Inn offers families a one night stay at a local area motel Liz Hitt Executive Director Bethlehem Inn The Bethlehem Inn "Shelter, Sustenance, Self -Sustainability" Transitions! Last summer, The Bethlehem Inn stated that its 04/05 goal was to transition 2 people a month from homelessness to wholeness. I am proud to announce that we have exceeded that original goal and between opening on October I st, 2004 and the publishing of this newsletter, the Inn has transitioned 18 Adults and 6 children! "This represents 3 adults and I child per month of operation, far exceeding our original goal," said Brian Case, Board President. "We could not have done it without our donors and volunteers," Brian went on to say. "They are the heart and soul of the Bethlehem Inn." In addition to help from our local churches we are pleased to announce that the business community has helped make this year better than ever. Leading the charge is Deschutes Brewery, hosting the Inn for 2 weeks this year. "Deschutes Brewery has helped in the past, but this year they really came on board," said Liz Hitt, Director. In addition to the folks at the brewery, we would like to thank the employees of Home Depot and Holiday Realty. "Hosting the Inn is an excellent team -building exercise and you learn quickly what impact you can have on the community in a small amount of time," said Greg Dostert, Board Vice -President. Volunteer Thanks! The following organizations and congregations have volunteered at the Inn over the past two quarters. Special thanks to these groups as they struggled with us in learning how to operate on a full-time, year round ba- sis. This was a year of challenges and we are deeply grateful to the following groups: Nativity Lutheran, First Presbyterian, Church of Latter Day Saints (4 Bend Wards), St. Francis, First United Methodist, First Lutheran, COCC (OSPIRG), Christian Life Center, Home Depot, Deschutes Brewery, Ba- ha'I Community, Jewish Community of Central Oregon, Northstar, Bridges Academy, Realms Middle School, Bend Nazarene, Eastmont Church and the hundreds of individual volunteers who filled in on a mo- ment's notice when we were short volunteers! God Bless You! Taco Time to the Rescue! In operating a year round facil- ity, we have discovered that creativity is called for in feeding up to 72 people a night, 365 days a year. The manager of the Bend Taco Time, located on 3rd street, just south of Fred Meyer, has made this task significantly eas- ier through a very generous in- kind donation! Twice a week the Bend Taco Time provides the main entree for shelter residents. The Bethlehem Inn picks up the meal, and volun- teers serve it to our clients. "This is the future of the Inn and the best way to provide healthy meals to our clients," stated Jana Arbow, Board Treasurer. "This is a great way for local restaurants to make a real impact, and every restaurant can sponsor the Inn for one or two nights per month." Our goal is to have a differ- ent restaurant sponsor the The Bethlehem Inn PO Box 8540 Bend, OR 97708 (541) 322-8768 (Office) (541) 389-2820 (Client) www.bethieheminn.org April 2005 The Bethlehem Inn Physical Wish List If you have any of the following items and would like to donate them to the Inn, please stop on by! Tax receipts are always available. • A locking filing cabinet • Socks and underwear • Coffee, cereal and sugar • Cleaning supplies • Paper products (plates, etc) • 6 dressers • Spinning rolodex • Daytime Volunteer— we have several clients who work the graveyard shift. We're looking for people to man the front desk from 8 am to noon M -F so they are able to sleep in. Please call 322-8768 if You're interested! The Bethlehem Inn now has a food pantry and is currently cooking and pre- paring all of its own meals. Our pantry always needs help and the following items are requested: Inn one night every month. I • Cans of tuna If you are interested in help- ing the Bethlehem Inn pro- vide good healthy meals to clients on a regular basis, please contact Liz. "Bend is blessed with a giv- ing business community, and this type of in-kind donation is a great way for local res- taurants to help," said Jana Arbow. • Cans of chili • Cans of beef stew • Cereal • Hot. Dogs • Hamburgers • Canned Juice • Canned Vegetables The Bethlehem Inn "Shelter, Sustenance, Self -Sustainability" Operating a year round facility has allowed the Inn to do many things that were impossible as a seasonal, part-time shelter. One of the most important of these is helping our clients prepare for the workplace and transition into their own living accommodations. Clients often arrive at the shelter exhausted, hungry and without identification. The first two we can fix in a matter of hours, but the third takes extensive time and resources. Katharine Liegel, our Next Steps In our effort to provide more than meals, showers, beds and case management, the Bethlehem Inn has established a classroom! The goal is to give people the tools they will need to transition out of the shelter. Classes that we will offer include food handler's, budgeting, landlord/tenant relations and interviewing Next Steps Coordinator, assesses each client within a week of their arrival at the Inn to determine his or her needs - which often include a lack of identification. "You cannot get a job without ID and you can't obtain ID without a social security card and something with your date of birth on it," sums up Katharine. Birth Certificates cost between $10 and $30, depending on the state, and ID cards average about $29 depending on the circumstances. The process takes an techniques. By providing these classes right here at the Inn, we hope to empower our clients to transition more quickly and gain skills that will enable them to be successful long after they have left the program. Many thanks to Darrell and Donese Pogue of The Kids Store who provided 12 average of 4-6 weeks and we are proud to announce that to date, the Inn has purchased: 20 IDs In conjunction with Jennifer Laurie, a case manager from DHS, Katharine also assesses other client needs. Katharine and Jennifer work together to refer clients to other agencies to obtain anything from medical care to job counseling to rent and utility assistance. By providing case management, the Inn enables the clients to learn about and access resources far faster than if they were struggling on their own. desks and a large dry erase board for our classroom at a greatly reduced cost. A big thanks also to COCC who have offered to establish a computer lab with four computers in the classroom. Computer classes will be provided on a volunteer basis by COCC students. Adult Mentors Wanted When you are struggling in life, often the best strategy for getting back on your feet is seeking outside support and advice. Because we have such a small staff at the Bethlehem Inn, we are soliciting the help of anyone in the community who would be interested in acting as an adult mentor to a client at the Inn. Mentors would meet with clients on a regular basis (preferably at least once a week) either here at the Inn or elsewhere. Adult mentors would simply be present to the clients, touching base with them and providing the encouragement and support that so many of them need in order to break out of homelessness. If you are interested in being an adult mentor to a client at the Inn, please contact Katharine at 322- 8768 and we will match you up with someone who is in need of your time and energy. "Unity in things necessary, liberty in things doubtful, charity in everything" Anonymous SPRING CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED! $30,000 Year-round, full-time operation calls for year- round, full-time funding. Offering services to our community on a full -time basis is "a whole new ballgame" said Brian Case, Board President. "The Central Oregon community must decide if it wants to provide services for those in need on a full-time or part-time basis. Central Oregon needs a year-round facility and it can't be done on part-time funding," Brian Case continued. "Transitioning 18 adults and 6 children out of the shelter system and into a more stable environment takes time and commitment," said Liz, Inn Director. "We have been very successful in writing grants this year but this is a short- term solution," said Jen Rusk, board member. "Long-term viability depends on the local Central Oregon community taking ownership of the program and dedicating themselves to its success." Please return the enclosed envelope today with your donation. Thank You! Secure credit card donations can be made on our website: www.bethleheminn.orQ Volunteers Needed! Now that the Inn is operating year-round, we need volunteers on a regular, full-time basis. "The summer volunteer schedule is looking really grim," said Calli Roberts, Volunteer Coordinator. Volunteers can sign up as individuals or as a group. "Bend gets pretty empty in the summer but our The Bethlehem Inn is designed to help people help themselves. In that vein, the Bethlehem Inn charges clients a small daily fee. The fee is $4 per day, or $28 per week/ $120 per month. "For less than the cost of one night in a local motel, a Bethlehem Inn client can receive a bed, obligation to those less fortunate is not a seasonal commitment", noted Brian Case, Board President. Two main volunteer positions exist: Evening Meal Servers work 5:30 to 7 PM and the ideal number of servers is 3-4. The other position is Evening Host with two shifts: 5-8 and 8- 10 PM. Some volunteers Shelter Fees ! showers, meals and case management for a week," said Liz Hitt, Executive Director. The Inn does not turn away anyone who cannot pay the fee, but we explain to the clients upon entry that the program is geared towards accountability and that they will be required to pay the fee once income is work the whole evening (5-10 PM) while others want to split it up. The early shift is great for folks who work the next day. So, make your summer fun and fulfilling. Please contact Calli today to volunteer: 322-8768 or crbiCcDbendbroadband.com secured. "It might sound weird but I am happy to pay. I like being able to tell people that I am not a charity case and that I pay my way. It makes me feel good," explained Hugh, a Bethlehem inn Shelter client. 100% of the money collected through client fees is returned to the program. Mental Health Staff! The Inn is excited to announce that Brian Fuller from the Department of Mental Health will be meeting with clients at the Inn. Brian's presence at the shelter, thanks to a grant secured by Mental Health, will enable us to better meet the needs of our clients. Many of our clients struggle with mental health problems, and to have a staff member on board who can specifically address these issues is a valuable asset to the Bethlehem Inn! Donation Thank You! Big Thank You to Bruce Churchill of Hap Taylor & Sons, Inc. Bruce donated a Chevy Blazer to the Inn and it has made a phenomenal difference in our ability to transport clients to and from job opportunities. Thanks Bruce! Milton Hunt: Co– founder of the Bethlehem Inn. 1931-2004 Milton Hunt loved people, loved life, and loved his God. He was happiest leading a church service, or fishing, or attending a meeting -preferably leading the meeting. He was interested in almost everything (except rock music) and loved to learn. He was an avid reader, especially of murder mysteries and history. He was born in 1931 in Baltimore, Maryland, the oldest child in a family of four siblings -which explains a lot, no doubt. He grew up in Washington, D.C. where he attended a Lutheran church with his family and where he decided as a young teen that he was called by God into the Lutheran ministry. He was ordained in Portland, Oregon and settled into his first parish in Stevenson, Washington as a bachelor pastor. Somewhere along the way he acquired a wife, Kathryn, in 1961, with first a son and then a daughter being added to the family in the coming years. The next parish was in Vancouver, Washington, where Milton discovered his interest in working with alcoholism and took additional classes to increase his knowledge of the disease. The family then moved to southeast Portland, then to Juneau, Alaska, where they spent fifteen years. The next move took them to Great Falls, Montana, where they enjoyed nearby skiing, National Parks, and exploring this area east of the Rockies. A final parish assignment was in a suburb of Sacramento, where Milton enjoyed rebuilding a dying church. After 40 years in the active ministry, Milton retired and he and his wife settled happily in Bend, Oregon. He enjoyed organizing Homeowner Associations, meddling with the city council and Deschutes County activities and especially organizing and co-founding the Bethlehem Inn. People told him repeatedly that this outreach to the homeless would not work, but that just made the whole idea more of a challenge, and Milton always thrived on challenges! In the past few years his health deteriorated, and he struggled to remain active as long as he was able. He passed away peacefully on October 12th, 2004, due to severe congestive heart failure and complications from abdominal surgery. He may be gone, but his projects and work ethics and love of helping others remain in the memories of many. –Kathy Hunt The Bethlehem Inn PO Box 8540 Bend, OR 97708 NON PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID BEND OR PERMIT NO 473 2004 REPORT PAROLE AND PROBATION 2004 was both an exciting year and,a frustrating year for the parole and probation department. With 16 parole and probation officers supervising approximately 1400 offenders, the watchword was busy, busy, busy. Our support staff, all new to our department in 2004, performed remarkably in terms of assisting our officers and specialists in carrying out our mission to achieve sustained reductions in offender recidivism by holding offenders accountable and facilitating pro -social thinking and behavior change. PAROLE AND PROBATION SUPERVISORS During July, Terry Chubb and Charity Hobold were selected as our new supervisors. Tent' had been a parole and probation officer in our department since 1994 working with generic offenders as well as sex offenders in the Redmond area during the majority of that time. Terry serves as our liaison to the law enforcement community. Terry supervises 12 staff including 8 parole and probation officers and 4 specialists and technicians, oversees the monitoring of 50 offenders on Conditional Discharge from the court and conducts our department's background investigations. During November, Terry attended supervisory training at the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training in Monmouth. In addition to supervising staff, Terry and Charity carry out the policies of the department and assist in the hiring of new staff. Charity had been an employee of our department for 23 years prior to being promoted to supervisor, also during July. Her experience in the department is broad, including front office support, writing presentence investigations, supervising low risk offenders and supervising sex offenders. Charity supervises '16 staff including 8 parole and probation officers and 8 intems who supervise our transitional housing dorm. She also oversees our sex offender supervision/treatment team and our family violence supervision/treatment team. Tent' and Charity are both members of the Deschutes County Supervisory Authority Board Administrative Committee. This committee meets twice per month to review jail inmates for release to alternative programming. Because our two supervisors earn only a slightly high hourly wage than the parole and probation officers that they supervise, our plan is to seek reclassification of their positions next fiscal year. STREET CRIMES CASELOADS Five parole and probation officers in our department are responsible for the supervision of approximately 350 offenders who have committed a mix �of street crimes including drug offenses and property offenses. In Redmond, Jess Anders and Nancy Jernigan -Brown rely on their G:)mbined forty -plus years of corrections and law enforcement experience to supervise offenders in the northern 625 square miles of Deschutes County. During the month of December, Jess had 66 offenders on his caseload, completed 80 face- to-face contacts with his offenders and imposed 12 sanctions, all involving jail time. Nancy had 67 offenders assigned to her caseload during the month of November, and had 78 face-to-face contacts with her offenders. Jess and Nancy are active with the Deschutes County Sheriffs Office and Redmond Police Department Street Crimes Team. Additionally, Jess is our Department's Hearings Officer and is active on the Use of Force Team. Working out of our main office in Bend, Angel Lotito, Vicki Dizney, and Lydia McNaughton supervise offenders from Deschutes River Woods to Deschutes Junction. Lydia is experiencing her first year as a parole and probation officer and is quickly leaming the art of supervision. With 67 offenders on her caseload during November, Lydia imposed 9 sanctions with 8 sanctions to jail and one non jail. Vicki and Angel are active in developing and maintaining community resources and Angel serves as our Defensive Tactics instructor. Vicki's caseload totaled 67 during December and she accomplished 92 faaE -to-face contacts with offenders. Angel's caseload totaled 60 offenders during November and she collected $1420 in supervision fees. Angel also imposed 18 sanctions with half to jail and the other half non jail. Lydia, Vicki and Angel all came to work for our department after years of experience with our local Sheriffs Office. LOW RISK CASELOAD Frank Dietsch is currently developing our Telephone Reporting Unit so that our low risk offenders are being supervised in accordance with evidence based practices. An offender is classified as "low risk" if the results of a risk assessment completed by the supervising parole and probation officer reflects that the offender has a low risk to reoffend. During December, 99 offenders were assigned to Frank's caseload and he collected $1380 in supervision fees from offenders. CASE BANK Our "case bank" topped out at 416 offenders during May. These offenders have been determined, again via a risk tool, to present a limited risk to re -offend. In many cases, the offender on Case bank is one that has already been under supervision several years and has completed the majority of the requirements attached to their supervision. Chris Bell, parole and probation officer, and Patty Rursch, parole and probation technician, are responsible for ensuring that Case bank offenders continue to make payments on restitution owed to crime victims and that they maintain stability in the community for the remainder of their supervision. During November, Chris and Patty collected $5,581 in supervision fees from their clients. Chris is also our in-house computer "guru" and serves as the Interstate Compact Coordinator for Deschutes County. Patty has been our department's representative on a statewide corrections committee and is also our department's LEDS (Law Enforcement Data System) representative. CRIME SPECIFIC CASELOADS Family Violence With the unexpected resignation of Anitra Wheeler during August, and the inability of Frank Dietsch to work face-to-face with offenders beginning in October, our batterer intervention team was completely transformed. Kim Semancik was hired in September to take over Anitra's caseload and brought with her a wealth of information as a result of her prior work experience as a federal pre-trial release office and as a counselor for victims of domestic violence. During the last month of the year, Kim "S" (as we refer to her) had 65 face-to-face contacts with her offenders and collected nearly $600 in supervision fees from clients. During December, Kim Gustamantes was promoted to parole and probation officer from another position in our office and took over (Frank's caseload. During that month, Kim had 67 offenders on her caseload, completed 63 face4o-face contacts with her offenders and 374 collateral contacts (meaning spouse, neighbor, relative, therapist, etc.) Vern Yeager, a parole and probation officer in our LaPine office, supervises batterers who live in southern Deschutes County. During November, 60 offenders were assigned to Vern's caseload and he imposed four sanctions, all to jail. For the last several months, this team has been working diligently to restructure the manner in which we supervise and provide services to batterers. Charity has formed a Battering Intervention Program treatment/supervision team which meets monthly to discuss ways to improve the manner in which we supervise and hold batterer's accountable for non-compliant behavior. All of the treatment providers working with batterers and our two family violence parole and probation officers attend. A representative of Central Oregon Battering and Rape Alliance and a polygraph examiner who will be testing batterers will be joining this group in the near future. Our department was proud to be asked by our local judges to act as the "gatekeeper" for battering programs, insuring that client referrals are made only to those programs that are in compliance with Oregon Administrative Rules surrounding battering treatment. Sex Offender Our department has also welcomed new staff to our sex offender team. 1/Vith the promotion of Charity and Terry to supervisor, a sex offender PO position in Bend and a sex offender PO position in Redmond, were left vacant. Sarah Wayman, who had several years experience in our office in other capacities was assigned to the Bend office as a sex offender PO. Unbeknownst to many, Sarah is our very own Sidney March" who authors wonderful short pieces for the BWell newsletter. During December, Sarah attempted and/or completed 86 unannounced home visits on offenders. Richard Vasconi, a retired New York police officer, took over the Redmond sex offender caseload. We continue to be amazed that after all his years in law enforcement, Rich remains cheerful, positive and willing to perform the difficult job of supervising offenders. During the month of December, Rich made 46 contacts with assorted offenders in their homes. Tanner Wark continues to be part of our sex offender team in the Bend office as is Lee Wilson, who has a mixed caseload in LaPine of sex offenders and drug/property offenders. Tanner imposed six sanctions during the month of December with one to jail and the remaining five non jail. During the month of November, Lee had 72 offenders assigned to his caseload, collected nearly $2100 in supervision fees and had 76 face-to-face contacts with offenders. These staff are responsible for the difficult job of community notification on their offenders who meet necessary criteria for such action. In that vein, our department recently added a section to our portion of the county website which allows the public to access photographs and information regarding our most dangerous sex offenders. The website also supplies the reader with information about the conditions a convicted sex offender must abide by, myths and facts concerning sexual offenders, and assorted legislative mandates such as ,sex offender registration and DNA testing. All of our sex offender parole and probation officers participate with a therapist in weekly sex offender group treatment. Lee provides a much needed service to prison inmates who are preparing for release by participating in "transitional fairs7 in which those about - to -be -released inmates can learn of services available in the county they will be released to as well as the conditions by which they will be required to abide. Both Tanner and Lee serve our country through their involvement in the military reserves. ISSUE SPECIFIC CASELOADS Mental Health Our mental health team is a team of one at this time — the very patient and capable Pat Tabor. Pat continually amazes the rest of our staff with her extraordinary ability to work with these very difficult offenders. Pat had 91 face- to-face contacts with her offenders during December and completed 45 home visits. Pat works closely with the county Mental Health Department, particularly psychiatrist, Mark Williams, and therapist, Kara Cronin. Pat has also worked closely with our Court, specifically Judge Tiktin, in developing a process which allows her to return an offender to Court for a Review Hearing rather than a Violation Hearing. So far, this system has worked well and the desire of all involved is to expand the process to include additional mentally ill offenders. Intensive Supervision Parole and Probation's most criminally active, most resistant to changing their behavior and most violent offenders are placed on parole and probation officer, Dave Poole's, Intensive Supervision Program. Dave does an outstanding job of holding his approximately 45 offenders accountable, requiring them to report to his office every week and conducting home visits with them at every opportunity. Because of the risk to the community that these difficult offenders present, Dave requests warrants for his offenders if they fail to report for even one office visit. Another duty that falls to Dave is to supervise offenders granted transitional leave (early release from prison) by the Department of Corrections. Dave also serves as the liaison between our department and the CODE (Central Oregon Drug Enforcement) Team. As an example of the diligent manner in which Dave manages his caseload, during November, Dave had 153 face-to-face contacts with offenders and completed 25 home visits. In his "spare" time, Dave is also a member of the military reserves. TRANSITIONAL HOUSE After many months of planning, preparation of a business plan, holding neighborhood meetings and moving through an approval process with the Department of Corrections in Salem and our County Commissioners, our Transitional House opened on July 7, 2004. The "house' is actually one dormitory on the first floor of our building previously used by the Sheriff as a work release center. Due to budget constraints, the Sheriff had closed the Work Center during April 2003 and the space had sat empty for over a year. Although we initially projected the need to house about 8 to 10 offenders at a time, we were almost immediately at our 18 -bed capacity. A job classification for "Parole and Probation Intern" was created for employees responsible for monitoring the "house" during the evening hours. When concerns were raised about offender's activities during the hours the "house" was not staffed, we increased the supervision to 2417. Offenders who live in the "house" are expected to be actively searching for employment on a daily basis if unemployed. The "house" is meant to be "transitional" with the goal of the offender moving to independent housing in the community with 60 days. This "house" has filled a much needed gap in services for offenders released from jail or prison and required by law to return to the county of conviction despite the common scenario of having no resources whatsoever in the community. PAROLE AND PROBATION SPECIALISTS Ken Morgan, Olga Chapman and Karen Vinson are all classified as parole and probation specialist, even though they each perform very unique functions. Ken operates our Day Reporting Center which opened in 2002 and also manages the responsibility of assigning offenders with community service obligations to assorted non-profit organizations in our community. Olga's responsibilities include providing "intake* services to all new offenders reporting to our office after being placed on probation by the court. She also monitors restitution payment made by offenders and provides oversight weekdays between 8 am and 5 pm to offenders residing in our transitional "house". Lastly, but absolutely not leastly, Karen serves as our electronic monitoring specialist. In her role, Karen meets with offenders who have been ordered by the Court or Supervisory Authority Board to serve a period on house arrest; otherwise known as electronic monitoring. Karen also processes release paperwork and parole orders for Senate Bill 1145 offenders in the Deschutes County Jail (felony offenders who receive a "prison" term of one year or less and previously would have served that sentence in a state prison, but are now required to remain in our county jail). PAROLE AND PROBATION RECORDS TECHNICIANS During the month of July, we achieved our goal of reclassifying our support staff from Senior Secretaries to Records Technicians. This move allowed our support staff to be classified and compensated in line with the duties that they actually performed as well as to expand their ability to assist parole and probation officers with certain tasks. Currently our department has three records technicians (although a fourth is sorely needed) who maintain various state data entry systems which track the movements of offenders from probation to jail to prison and often back again. This is a complex process which demands excellent judgment and decision making skills. Our three records technicians support 16 parole and probation officers by processing offenders through the intake procedure, scheduling appointments, testing urine for drugs and alcohol, collecting buccal samples (swabbing an offender's mouth for DNA material), creating and maintaining files, collecting fees and preparing travel permits and identification letters (for those offenders who cannot cash a check because they have no identification). Communication with county, state and federal agencies and organizations is not only necessary, but routine in order to create and maintain an accurate data bank on offenders. Additionally, our records technicians perform many administrative duties such as ordering supplies and processing mail. Our records technicians report to our Administrative Supervisor. ADMINISTRATIVE SUPERVISOR Deborah Feffer has been our department's administrative supervisor for several years. Besides being a talented actress who has performed in numerous plays at Second Street Theater and Community Theater of the Cascades, Deb keeps our organization running smoothly. Deb's current responsibilities surpass those identified in the position description for her classification and our hope is to have Deb reclassified next fiscal year to a position that more accurately reflects her duties. Deb supervises and manages our support staff; has significant budget, performance management and staff scheduling responsibilities; oversees the human resource and payroll functions within our department; maintains fiscal records including contract management and performs statistical analysis and technical support for dissemination to the public. Deb reports directly to the department director. CONCLUSION Our staff is constantly busy with a plethora of responsibilities that can all too frequently result in feelings of frustration and sadness. Routinely, our :staff are vicariously traumatized by having to read about the terrible things that criminals do to others. Staff constantly have daily interactions with addicts that cannot keep needles out of their arms and have to watch the children of these offenders beginning to develop beliefs and attitudes that will undoubtedly result in their moving into the criminal justice system as well. Home visits all too often reveal to our staff the unhealthy and just plain dangerous environments in which many offenders live. The good news is that all of our staff care about one another and about our community and its safety. Everyday, staff work diligently to hold offenders accountable and to assist them in changing their criminal thinking so that their behavior also changes and our community can be a safer, healthier place to live. Becky Wanless Director 5/25/05 From: Toni Steele [mailto:tonist@webtv.net] Sent: Monday, April 25, 2005 11:47 PM To: Webmaster Subject: Unfinished job Deschutes County Parole and Probation's website leaves a LOT to be: desired. There's an old date on there.... Feb. 2004 .... and it states they are "revamping". Well, that's been a l0000000000ng time ago.. There are many of us out here who are interested in knowing the registered sex offenders in our area of Deschutes County. While you people are goofing off and taking your time (well over a year), there are innocent children at risk DAILY. You should be ashamed of yourselves. While you apparently couldn't care less about protecting those little kids .... those of us who are conscientious and feel responsible for their well-being want to do EVERYTHING possible to ensure their safety. Skip the schmoozing, the coffee breaks, the low -priority -justify -your -job -by -appearing -busy tripe ... and concentrate on doing something meaningful and helpful. In the meantime, I'll keep a record of this e-mail to you .... and you'd better hope nothing happens to some poor unsuspecting family who could have been warned of a predator in their area and kept a tragedy from happening. Oh .... and leave the word "master" out of your "webmaster" claim. Anyone who takes over a year to accomplish such an important task needs to be called a "webamateur", and even that is more than you deserve. Toni Becky Wanless To: tonist@webtv.net Subject: Deschutes County Parole and Probation Toni - The Deschutes County Information Technology Department forwarded your, e-mail to me this afternoon. Please return to the Deschutes County website, select "Adult Parole and Probation", select "Sex Offender Information" and then select "Predatory Sex Offenders." At that location, you will find photographs and information about our predatory sex offenders. Please be aware: that registration and notification in regard to sex offenders are two very different things. All sex offenders are required to register with the Oregon State Police; however, notification is something that we are able to do only on certain sex offenders. You are correct that the section of our portion of the county website relating to parole and probation violators is not up to date. Our staff are trained parole and probation officers and are hired for those skills; not skills relating to creating and maintaining a website. It is for that reason that all information is not up to date. Currently we have 1400 offenders under supervision who reside in Deschutes County and 16 parole and probation officers to supervise and monitor the behavior of those offenders. Our staff are dedicated, hard-working professionals who take their obligation to supervise felons and misdemeanants very seriously. I'd like to arrange a time for you to come into our office -and spend a few hours with one of our officers. You would see a very different picture than that which you describe in your e-mail. If you have other questions or concerns, please let me know. Becky Wanless, Director Deschutes County Parole ane{ Probation 63360 Britta Street, Bldg. #2 Bend, Oregon 97701 Phone: (541) 383-4383 Fax: (541) 385-1804 E -Mail: beckywa0co.de5chute5.0r.u5