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A Message From the Director

AUSTIN, Texas – I am happy to announce Lou Serrano as our new Senior Director of Probation and Community Services. Lou has served in an interim capacity to liaise with the field since the end of February while continuing his role as Regional County Administrator. Lou was Director of Juvenile Services for Ector County for 15 years and was Chief JPO for Deaf Smith County for 11 years before joining TJJD. Lou will be headquartered here in Austin. I am particularly excited about Lou’s collaborative spirit, leadership skills, and productivity. I heard from many in the county juvenile probation field, receiving input for the selection process, and that feedback was very helpful. I owe thanks to Chiefs Homer Flores, Roger Martinez, and Edeska Barnes for sitting on the interview panel and providing county perspective to the interview process.

We all recently gathered for the Post Legislative and Budget Conferences. That is a favorite of mine because it truly brings the whole system together. This year was no exception. It was a wonderful opportunity for the Texas juvenile justice system to learn about the changes made during the Legislative Session.

During the conference, I met with the Regional Presidents’ Council. We discussed a number of things, one of which is our need to foster the partnership between the
agency and the county field. I know Lou will help with this significantly. But I, too, am committed to being as present as possible in the field. My Chief of Staff Chelsea Buchholtz and Chief Financial Officer Mike Meyer made the same commitment. We also discussed our need to begin thinking of our unified message for next legislative session. It seems too early to talk about but it is not at all. The next session will be here before we know it and, in fact, our LAR development process will begin in earnest early in 2018. I look forward to these Regional Presidents’ Council meetings—they are instructive and collaborative and go a long way in improving the communication linkage that is so important to the whole system.

In other news, beginning September 1, 2017, all juvenile supervision officers will be required to successfully complete a competency examination before being certified. We started this for juvenile probation officers last year. This is a significant milestone for the juvenile justice field to help ensure competency is demonstrated. It has been in the works for many years and I am glad to see it coming to fruition. It will lend additional credibility to the certification process. I am proud of our Juvenile Justice Training Academy for accomplishing this
great milestone.

We have had a few pieces of excitement on the state side. We had a youth escape late on Friday night, July 21, from one of our secure facilities. Our Office of Inspector General (OIG) apprehended the youth the following day. The hard work of the OIG mitigated what could have been a much worse situation. I am proud of the hard work of OIG and the facility staff and am determined to ensure that the incident is used to make us better.

We also were the beneficiary of great kindness and service by the Disaster Relief Division of the Texas Baptist Men’s Group. They served our Mart facility for several days recently when a city water pipe failed and caused the Mart facility to endure days without any water at all and other days with sporadic outages and directives to conserve. This service group provided laundry and showers at a time when we greatly needed the help. We are forever grateful for their gift to the agency in our time of need.

In July we moved our male youthful offender program from Ron Jackson to Giddings. All indications show that the move was successful. This provides relief for Ron Jackson who has seen an increase in commitments coming through Orientation and Assessment. By moving these young men, we freed capacity at Ron Jackson and diversified the population at Giddings.

It has been a busy summer around here, as I am sure it has been for all corners of our juvenile justice system. Schools are now starting and there is excitement in the air for the new beginnings that many will experience. I look forward to what lies ahead.

PHOTO: David Reilly
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