Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, March 15, 2011,
Item 22
22.
consider and take appropriate action on request from life anew to use the Commissioners courtroom temporarily to provide court ordered counseling.
and yesterday I tried to do a memo that would summarize the reason for this request, thanks for coming judge bear, but it is a nonprofit corporation that does counseling, court ordered counseling, and when judge baird was the judge of the 299th, I believe so they used his courtroom and the criminal district judges have concluded that they do not wish to continue that and they have notified life anew of that decision and life anew said they had 46 weeks and I think that was one or two weeks ago so in my memo I indicated four more weeks at the criminal court rodeo location they have been using and when judge baird contacted me and the director of of life anew, I told them I would ask the Commissioner's court for use of this courtroom until permanent arrangements were made, and they are looking for a place to meet from 6:30 to 8:30 each Tuesday.
and I did check with our ourfacilities department and they indicated that would not pose a problem for them.
what they need basically are chairs and space and access to the courtroom, and they vindicated that whatever -- they have indicated whatever they rearrange in the courtroom, they will return to its original place.
at the conclusion of the meeting.
and I think you met in judge baird courtroom a couple of years and I have seen various nonprofit agencies using various parts of this building, so that is not new and different.
it would just be new and different for this particular nonprofit.
this is court ordered counseling.
downtown is centrally located and when I asked john about it, informal, off the cuff opinion, we basically have left how the courtrooms and the criminal justice center are used to the judges, and -- but if they feel uncomfortable about it, then I can understand their deciding to discontinue that.
what should be added?
>> I think you have covered it very well, judge Biscoe.
this is a program that I found a couple of years ago that dealt with individuals who had anger management, batterers, domestic violence tendencies and problems that got them involved in the criminal justice system.
I made this specific program a condition of any number of individuals in my court who had -- as a condition of bond or on probation.
I know judge denton did the same thing and other judges have now ordered individuals into this program
>> I will say this ms. Patten traveled at her own expense to california to learn this program.
it is a state of the art program.
it is the only program of its type offered in Travis County to these individuals.
I think it is vital for these individuals who are receiving this treatment and counseling to continue with this, and I would appreciate the court doing anything that you could to make this space available to these young men and women so that their counseling is not interrupted and they can proceed with their recovery and rehabilitation.
and this nice lady here is kim patten and she knows more than I ever will.
she is wonderful and used my courtroom for two years.
there was never a problem with the courtroom the way they used the facility.
everything was returned in order by on their departure and we were able to conduct court as we should have under normal course of business the following morning.
>> yes, when I worked from Travis County jail, I was a counselor inside, out in del valley and we had a rain program where we used to bridge to life.
man alive which is held in california, the curriculum man alive is in california, sonny shorts and sinclair who is the founder of man alive, they came down to Travis County jail to present it to sheriff hamilton to have it inside of the jail but the county didn't have the money to fund it because it is very expensive and the way I was able to purchase it is that he had a heart and that I was nonprofit and didn't have any funds and he gave me a big cut in training.
so I went to san francisco for 8 days which would have been three months but we had 8 days intense training and we did the training via skype, 52 week program.
inside of the jail we only had 14 weeks because it was a 14 week curriculum, but now 52 weeks that we do every Tuesday night, court ordered through probation court.
some attorneys do recommend sending the men and women to the program.
we do gender specific, though.
the men with the men and the women are with the women.
I only have three women right now but I have 20 men who are currently in the program.
>> how long will your county employee -- how long were you a county employee?
I forgot that part?
>> five years.
>> of the sheriff's office.
>> of the sheriff's office and I am doing basically what I did inside of the jail.
I just do it out in the community now because I noticed when inside the jail they would say what I wanted to hear, sometimes they do it here as well, but inside of the walls they are going to do it mainly to get out of the cell.
I did have some that did not do that.
but I noticed the support, once they are outside of the doors.
>> how many programs like this the do we have in our community?
>> we have life works and myself.
>> two.
>> two.
and we had another young man, but he retired who was dealing with high risk offenders, which is what I deal with as well.
>> does life works handle roughly the same number or do they handle more?
>> I think they may handle a little more because they have more employees and different times.
right now I am currently working on that.
this curriculum allows the men who are currently working the program, to allow us to recycle them.
so once they become senior advocate and have been in the program longest and not probation any longer, we can employ them.
they can go back inside the jail and facilitate the group and they can do that in the community.
we are looking forward to tho that as well.
hiring these young men, gauze they have some felonies in their background so they can't get employment, so knowing this curriculum because they have been in the program for 52 weeks, who better to teach them on somebody who has been shoes, and they take it to heart when they see somebody who has been where they were even if they changed.
>> once a week for a year, you have to do some good.
>> yes, even though they are ordered, some do not continue.
they come and then they decide this is not for me.
you have to make an agreement saying yes, I'm violent and I have been violent to my community, my family and to myself and some of them come in here and say I didn't do it.
we are not trying to say you are guilty or anything.
we are here to help you in that cycle of lies.
we are not trying to prosecute or anything like that, we are here to break cycle of violence.
>> but if you continue comply --
>> I report to the probation officer that -- or the judge that they no longer are attending the class.
>> I there say this, the young men and women that I ordered to be in the class oftentimes I would langaround until 6:30 when the class would start, visit with them and they were all very enthusiastic and excited about the class and they thought they got a lot of out of it and it is just kind of realizing and then being taught a way to deal with their own emotions and address tendencies towards violence and resolve issues and disputes.
it had a remarkable effect on the young men and women I had in the program and that's why I think it is so vital that it continue and that's why I am here today, even though I retired the end of last year, I think it is a wonderful program and hate to see it stopped.
>> move approval.
is there a way we have tracked these to show they indeed don't repeat?
>> that is what I am working -- working with ellen halbert, she is going to -- because we started this curriculum March '09, so it has been a year now.
and we are going to try to do some stats on the young men still there from the beginning.
>> judge, did you ever get feedback on how it was working to deep them out soft system?
>> it had a very high success rate and of course my input is anecdotal in the fact I was very specific in who I put on the program, based on what I thought were the particular needs of the offender and I don't believe I ever saw any of them come back to me.
and I -- I would have specifically feel like I would specifically remember that, Commissioner Gomez, had they come back on violence related offense, some type of assaultive conduct and I don't recall those individuals ever coming back.
>> we would monitor the situation with ms. Patten here and see how it's going.
>> yes.
ms. Eckhardt moves approval.
I second.
discussion discussion?
all those in favor.
this passes by unanimous vote.
>> thanks.
>> I would go ahead and take the judges up on using their courtroom and other -- for the other three weeks or so.
>> I got an email from stage and she told me to continue to use it until I find another location.
>> all right.
>> Commissioner Gomez, thank you.
>> it is mighty good to see you.
I haven't seen you in a while.
it is great to see you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, March, 2011 2:19 PM
