Budget Bill Signing Draws Big Crowd at Jefferson City Correctional Center
 In a ceremony at Jefferson City Correctional Center (JCCC) June 10, Governor Mike Parson signed into law a state operating budget that includes the largest pay raise for corrections staff in Missouri Department of Corrections (MODOC) history.
JCCC Sergeant Andrea Galbreath, a 23-year veteran of the department, introduced the governor and thanked him for recognizing the hard work of her colleagues. "This is a building and some fences. None of this is capable of keeping our citizens protected without our unique and qualified staff," she said. "They are the most competent and courageous people you will meet."
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Developed by the department, championed by Governor Parson and approved by the Missouri General Assembly, the pay plan calls for a 3 percent salary increase for all state workers, plus an additional and ongoing 1 percent increase for every two years of service, up to 20 years, for all non-executive corrections staff. The budget includes funding to ensure that the calculation of the 1 percent retention raise applies to all years of previous MODOC experience — further boosting pay for the 1,461 current employees who previously left the department and then returned.
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The pay plan is funded in part by the consolidation of Crossroads Correctional Center with Western Missouri Correctional Center, both in Cameron. The consolidation will save the state approximately $21 million per year while bolstering staffing and safety. No staff layoffs and no new offender releases are included in the plan.
“This is a great example of leadership from Director Precythe, a great example of thinking outside the box and being smart and efficient with taxpayers’ money,” said Governor Mike Parson. “What did we do with that money we saved? We reinvested every dime of it into our Corrections team.”
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The pay increase, which goes into effect in January 2020, will raise the salaries for corrections employees by at least 3 percent and as much as 13 percent. While the cost-of-living component is expected to help recruit new staff, the additional increase for corrections is designed to help retain current staff, reward experience and improve safety in state facilities. The longer you work with MODOC, the more you earn.
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 In June, we celebrate State Team Member Appreciation Month with extra love for staff who do math. The Fiscal Management Unit is busily wrapping up Fiscal Year 2019 and celebrating Governor Mike Parson's signing of the state operating budget bill, which gives corrections staff the largest pay increase in the department's history. Susan Pulliam, chief financial officer for the Missouri Department of Corrections, tells us why her team is awesome. Watch the video »
Corrections Responds to Tornado Damage and Flooding
 Flood Relief
As flooding continues at near-record levels throughout Missouri, corrections teams are stepping up to help fellow citizens. Offenders and staff from Boonville Correctional Center (BCC), Chillicothe Correctional Center (CCC), Eastern Reception Diagnostic & Correctional Center (ERDCC), Moberly Correctional Center (MCC), Northeast Correctional Center (NECC), Women’s Eastern Reception Diagnostic & Correctional Center (WERDCC), and Western Reception Diagnostic & Correctional Center (WRDCC), have undertaken rigorous sandbagging work near towns such as New Franklin, St. Joseph, Norborne, Brunswick, Kimmswick, Clarksville, Craig, Hardin and Henrietta. Thank you for this important work that's saving homes, towns and lives throughout the state.
Tornadoes
Jefferson City was struck by an EF-3 tornado just before midnight May 22. The same night, tornadoes struck Eldon and Golden City, killing three citizens. Members of the corrections team have come to the aid of those affected by the storm. While no Department of Corrections buildings were damaged, Algoa and Jefferson City correctional centers experienced phone and cable outages. The Missouri State Penitentiary, which closed in 2004 and now operates as a museum, and several state government offices were among the more than 75 buildings damaged by the Jefferson City tornado.
Assistance
Communities throughout the state currently face flooding and flood damage as rivers reach record high levels. If you need assistance recovering from storm or flood damage, you can access resources through the MO Recovery site at recovery.mo.gov. To help fellow Missourians, contact the American Red Cross.
Offenders are contributing to a disaster relief fundraiser by making donations at canteens using the product codes 1703 and 1704. The fundraiser ends June 30.
Jeremy Dixon, a Probation and Parole Officer II in a District 27, Jefferson City, never fails to demonstrate how much he cares about teammates, clients, victims and the community. When a fellow officer was working with a client who became suicidal, Dixon helped ensure emergency medical services and officers were dispatched to the scene and the client was taken safety to the hospital. When managing his own domestic violence caseload, Dixon always rises to the occasion, ensuring victims’ voices are heard while also guiding his clients toward responsible behavior and success.
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DOC Leakbusters from Eastern Reception, Diagnostic & Correctional Center is a finalist team in Cycle 2 of the Show-Me Challenge, a competition in which groups of government workers propose ways for government to save time and money.
The final competition will be held June 21, with winners announced June 22. Stay tuned for presentations and results.
Congratulations and good luck to DOC Leakbusters: Julie Bell, Paul Coleman, David Dooley, Rone Henson, Kelly Krieger, Jeremy Lynn, Robert Miller, William Osborne, Steve Reminger, Robert Tuttle.
At the Correctional Peace Officer Foundation (CPOF) Project 2000 event and annual national memorial ceremony, Missouri Department of Corrections staff were honored for their service.
Missouri honor guard members joined their counterparts from throughout the country in a memorial ceremony commemorating fallen corrections colleagues and their families.
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After raising $5,000 for the organization, Southeast Correctional Center became the first Missouri prison to be named a lifetime facility sponsor. The team was honored for generosity.
CPOF works to preserve and support the surviving families of Correctional Officers who lose their lives in pursuit of their chosen profession of protecting the public.
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To keep all staff up to date on safety and security, the Security Intelligence Unit has launched a Situational Awareness bulletin. The bulletin, delivered by email to all staff, reports on searches, contraband and other security matters.
Want to see what's happening in your adult institution or other Missouri correctional centers? Check out the Local News page on the Department of Corrections site. Updated monthly, the page provides highlights from each facility, such as promotions, new hires, retirements, major events and, of course, puppies. Probation & Parole links coming soon.
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The deadline to complete the quarterly Pulse survey for Missouri state government staff is Wednesday, June 19.
Please take a few minutes to complete the survey now. Your responses are important, and they inform department-wide decisions.
More than half of all corrections staff participated in the all-state-government quarterly pulse survey in March, demonstrating a commitment to improving the department. View the statewide, all-agency survey results summary.
Fulton Community Supervision Center Graduation
In February, when the Probation & Parole District 26 Fulton Community Supervision Center welcomed the inaugural class into its women’s program, participants were not optimistic.
“I came here broken, and I didn’t believe I could ever feel anything else,” Dana Hebblethwaite, 30, recalled. “When I first walked into this building, I was such a wreck that I didn’t even notice it,” said Desiree Stone, 19.
One-hundred-twenty days later, at a May 16 graduation ceremony, the first seven women to complete the program addressed a crowd of peers, family and staff packed into the center’s community room to celebrate their accomplishment. Taking turns at the lectern, they described their new state of mind. “This amazing program has opened my eyes completely; I’m finally learning my self-worth,” Stone told the crowd. “Spiritually I feel free, and I’m hanging onto that with all of my might,” Hebblethwaite said.
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For the first time in department history, women on probation or parole can get support in an all-women’s residential center. The freshly remodeled Fulton CSC provides gender-responsive and trauma-informed approaches to help women under supervision in a rehabilitative environment.
In a four-phase program tailored to meet assessed needs, women tackle intensive employment-readiness prep work; on-site substance use disorder services; cognitive interventions; housing plans; and family reunification.
Staff invest in ensuring the women have the tools they need to change their lives.
“Your past does not define who you are,” Probation & Parole Officer Shari Lockett-Hamilton told the graduates. “You can make your life what you want it to be.”
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Vandalia ASPIRE MO Graduation
When the first ASPIRE MO participants leave prison, they intend to re-enter their communities equipped with the professional skills, solid business plans and confidence they need to become entrepreneurs.
Since December 2018, nine women have been fellow travelers on a 20-week journey to self-discovery and employability, from inside Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic & Correctional Center. There, they have gathered each week to figure out how to turn their strengths, skills and passions into careers.
Launched in collaboration among MODOC Reentry Services, the Missouri Women's Business Center and the Missouri Women's Council, the ASPIRE MO entrepreneurship program is rooted in LaunchU, a nationally recognized intensive business training course developed at Southeast Missouri State University. Students complete assignments designed to help them learn not only how to start a business but also how to get and keep a good job.
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Missouri women business owners and industry experts give guest lectures on topics such as business etiquette, résumé building and marketing strategies. Retired banker and Missouri First Lady Teresa Parson led a financial literacy session for the group and returned June 5 to deliver the commencement address at the graduation ceremony.
For each student, the coursework culminates in a finished business plan and a pitch delivered before graduation.
While incarcerated, student Lorie Barnes has spent six years training dogs in the C.H.A.M.P. Assistance Dogs program — skills she hopes to turn into a business. She said she’s grateful not only for the professional tools the class has given her but also for the compassionate guidance corrections staff and instructors have shown.
“They have gone out of their way to build us up and make us see our worth,” Barnes said. “After you’re shunned from society for so long, you have that grief, that loss. They have worked so hard to make us feel like we’re citizens again and we can get out there and we can do this.”
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Missouri Eastern Correctional Center Washington University Graduation
The first class to earn associate's degrees from the Washington University Prison Education Project took part in a history-making ceremony at Missouri Eastern Correctional Center in May.
Through the Wash U program, staff and offenders can take one class per semester on site at MECC, earning credits toward a degree. By May of this year, ten offenders had earned enough college course credits to quality for associate's degrees from the prestigious university. The event attracted attention from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as well as national news outlets such as NPR, CNN and MTV. Photo by Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch.
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When it comes to changing the mindsets and behaviors of people involved in the criminal justice system, we know that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. That’s why we’re changing the way we do business. In order to get the best results — to send people back out into the community better than they were when they came to us — we're tailoring our approach to the particular needs and strengths of each offender. The Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) will help us get there.
Right now JRI implementation focuses on three major areas:
- Assessment
- Case Planning
- Offender Accountability Procedures
Assessment
Implementation of our new risk and needs assessment tool, the Ohio Risk Assessment System (ORAS), started June 1. This validated instrument helps us to identify factors that drive a person toward negative or criminal behaviors and also to determine each person’s risk of reoffending. The information collected can help ensure that we invest proportionate attention and appropriate resources in the moderate-risk and high-risk offenders who need them the most. The ORAS is being adopted department-wide to assess offenders, target interventions and inform responses to behavior.
Case Planning
The new case planning model started June 1. Based on ORAS assessment results, the case plan is a collaborative partnership between the offender/client and corrections staff — and may include treatment providers and family members when appropriate. Certified ORAS users will be able to create case plans, and each case plan can be customized to capture goals, objectives, incentives and sanctions at all points of a client’s time with the department, both in facilities and in the community. Goals should be tied to criminogenic needs, and objectives should follow the SMART principle (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely). ORAS user guides, fact sheets and other documents are available to staff on the K drive in the Case Management folder, organized into sub-folders for the Division of Adult Institutions (DAI) and Probation & Parole (P&P).
Offender Accountability Procedures
The new offender rulebook for adult institutions went into effect May 1. For Probation & Parole, the Missouri Offender Management Matrix (MOMM) went into effect June 1. Both sets of tools are designed to provide a system of incentives and sanctions to reinforce positive behaviors while holding offenders/clients accountable for negative behaviors. Please use the DAI and P&P incentive grids to help determine which desired behaviors should be rewarded, which incentives are appropriate, and what role each staff member plays. (Access the DAI Behavior Incentive Guide grid or the P&P MOMM grid.)
Training:
- All P&P supervisors have been trained, and field officers are being trained through the end of May.
- DAI is completing training on offender accountability at each facility.
- MOMM will now be a part of new-P&P-officer training and will take place every quarter.
Congratulations to corrections team members who have signed up to expand their minds, hone their skills and broaden their horizons with free online professional development through MO Learning, powered by LinkedIn Learning.
MO Learning offers a catalog of more than 7,000 online courses for all types of jobs, organized into dozens of learning paths. These courses are free to state employees.
All Missouri Department of Corrections staff have access to MO Learning courses. Log in using your Missouri state employee ID and password. If you have a LinkedIn account, you can link it to your learning track after logging in. Start learning now at oa.mo.gov/molearning.
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Your great work is making headlines! Check out news media coverage of staff accomplishments in education, philanthropy, programming, reentry and more.
Corrections Pay Raise
Giving Back
Graduations
Workforce Development
Reentry
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Mission
Improving Lives for Safer Communities
Vision
Excellence in Corrections for a Safer Missouri
Values
We value safe work environments, a capable workforce and reduced risk and recidivism.
We value integrity and respect.
We value supportive leadership.
We value employee participation and teamwork.
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