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By Chrystal Owin
This quarter offered a variety of opportunities for community corrections boards and programs to engage with the Department of Corrections’ staff and clients!
On August 7th, approximately 40 board members, board and program staff spent a few hours at the Beacon @ Skyline Correctional Facility where we toured the campus, learned about the innovative and client-lead programming and reentry preparation they offer, heard passionate and inspirational testimonials from several clients and staff, and engaged in a Q&A session to learn more about each other’s roles.
Also in August, Trinidad Correctional Facility held the 2nd virtual Q&A meeting on the 21st. This was another great opportunity where the MAMBA (Men Achieving Missions Beyond Arrest) program participants and men from the general population gathered to engage in conversation with the many boards and programs in attendance about community corrections and the referral process.
On September 10th, about 10 program staff and board members made the hours-long drive to the Trinidad Correctional Facility to meet in person with the MAMBA program and general population participants. We were greeted enthusiastically with a planned program of client, staff and volunteer introductions; a PowerPoint presentation highlighting their many milestones, successes and celebrations; informational speeches and testimonials about several of their programs; and a tour of their honor unit.
All of these events help strengthen our relationship and collaboration, and bridge the gap between community corrections and DOC for the benefit of our client population. We encourage you to participate in future opportunities as they are announced!
Garden Therapy at ATC Lamar
By Wendy Bacchi
During the growing season, Lamar ATC clients grow a garden on facility grounds. This year, they entered carrots, zucchini, jalapenos, and pumpkins to be judged at the Prowers County Fair. The produce had a strong showing as overall, they were awarded the Reserve Grand Champion. Carrots took a 1st place ribbon, two mini pumpkins took 1st and 2nd place, the lone zucchini took 4th (a second was needed to place higher), and the jalapenos took 5th due to a transport accident. Additionally, there was a wild sunflower from the facility grounds that took 3rd place.
The vegetables were not the only awards received by ATC clients during the Sand & Sage Roundup. Client and artist, Othello Aguon, submitted artwork titled Guam to Denver and won a 1st place ribbon for his creative work.
The clients from ATC Lamar were incredibly proud of their work and were excited to be recognized for their talents.
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By Wendy Bacchi
OCC has added Task Widgets to the CCIB home screen. The purpose of these task widgets will assist different types of users. The widgets can be added to the blank Task page that appears once you are logged into CCIB and are based on the CCIB access you already have.
Once you log in, click the Take Tour button, it will show you how to add the task widgets to your Tasks page.
For the “case manager” assigned to the record in CCIB, there are two task widgets you can add to your homepage regarding the LSI. Both task widgets track and provide feedback regarding the timeliness of LSIs. This is based on the requirements of the Colorado Community Corrections Standards of an assessment within 10 business days of intake and an updated LSI every six (6) months thereafter. However, if it is not your program’s habit to enter assessments as they are conducted, but rather upon CCIB record completion, these task widgets may not be informative for your processes. You can choose to add both task widgets or just one or the other. Once you have added the task to your homepage, you are able to open the records from the task and sort or filter the data as you would like to.
- LSI Due Widget
- LSI Overdue Widget
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By Chrystal Owin
With the fast-approaching retirement date of December 31, 2024, this is the final day the ASUS-R (Adult Substance Use Survey - Revised) assessment can be used by our criminal justice system. Since learning that the assessment would be retired, the impacted state agencies have been coordinating on alternative plans. However, given the short turnaround time, it was immediately determined that an interim solution for community corrections programs would be needed. As the work stands currently, an interim solution for community corrections is in final stages of development, and the state agencies are collaborating to determine the best path forward to comply with applicable statutes on assessing for substance use disorder treatment in criminal justice.
The inability to utilize the ASUS-R will impact substance use case planning and treatment matching. In addition to the need to stop this assessment, the utilization of the TxRW (Treatment Recommendation Worksheet) in its current form will also be impacted.
All community corrections SOA-R (Standardized Offender Assessments - Revised) trainers will attend training at the beginning of October with the Office of Community Corrections to learn about the interim solution. The plan is to ensure all current and future staff responsible for administering assessments will be trained on the interim solution by December 31, 2024 to begin its use effective January 1, 2025.
The bottom line is no ASUS-R assessment can be administered to community corrections clients after December 31, 2024.
Therefore, it is our recommendation that no additional training occur at this time for new staff on the ASUS-R or TxRw assessments. New client intakes should be completed by already trained staff pending an official release of the interim solution.
A long-term solution is also currently being evaluated and we will keep the field updated with our progress and implementation plan in the near future.
When: October 25, 2024
Time: 10:30 am - 1:00 pm
Where: 710 Kipling Street, Denver, CO, 80215, 2nd Floor Conference Room
By DVOMB Newsletter
At the May Board meeting, the DVOMB received a training from Larimer Community Corrections regarding their response to domestic violence cases. Watch the recording of this presentation.
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