Greetings;
I am very pleased and proud to introduce our “new and improved” Texas Juvenile Justice Today newsletter through this column. The former “Executive Director’s Report” focused exclusively on TJJD state operations. A number of people asked over the past few months whether the agency’s newsletter could become more reflective and more representative of who we are today – one agency administering one system. So, we have done away with the Executive Director’s Report format in favor of this Texas Juvenile Justice Today. This is our first edition.
Through this newsletter, we hope to include stories, articles and features that will reflect a wide array of different programs, special events, staff profiles both from state operations and probation departments, community participation in programs, and operations both at the state and local levels. Stories and profiles of the wonderful people who do this work that you may not hear about otherwise. It’s an unfortunate fact of life that most of what we may hear about going on “somewhere else” in our state is of a negative nature. And sometimes it is. But the fact is that the achievements, the creativity, the dedication and commitment reflected through the work of our collective employees doesn’t typically get the same level of attention. So this is an effort, one effort, to communicate among ourselves about some of the interesting and noteworthy activities going on in state programs and in local probation departments around the state.
I hope you will find articles of interest in these pages. There are hundreds if not thousands of great stories out there. Please keep sending them in.
And please let us know how we can continue to improve on Texas Juvenile Justice Today.