A Dunklin County Treatment Court male participant, supervised by District 23 PPO Audrey Singleton, had a relapse of his sobriety. Audrey had built such a positive rapport with this client, he called her and told her about his use and that he had almost overdosed. After speaking with her client, Audrey contacted the Dunklin County Sheriff Department to ask if they would conduct a wellness check at his residence.

The next day, Audrey made contact with her client's Peer Support Specialist who indicated the client was in need of mental health services, but was refusing them.The client's mental health continued to deteriorate and the following day he contacted Audrey by phone and indicated he was hearing and seeing things that were not there. While keeping her client on the phone she made contact with the treatment court team to have them call for an ambulance to respond to his residence. Audrey met her client as he was being taken by ambulance to the hospital and noted he was clearly not well in terms of substance use and mental health. Unfortunately, the client's state of behavior deteriorated even further once at the hospital. Due to his negative behavior, unwillingness to cooperate with staff, and the pandemic he was released shortly after his arrival.

The next day, Audrey was contacted prior to the start of her day by the Family Counseling Center Peer Support Specialist that her client’s mental health had not improved, however, he was now willing to seek treatment at another hospital. Audrey kept the treatment court team up to date, including the Circuit Court Judge. Audrey soon received a call from her client, who was again agitated and unwilling to go to the hospital, and by this time the Peer Support Specialist and Kennett Police Department were at her client’s residence. Audrey spoke to the responding officers and her client and was able to convince her client to immediately go to his primary care physician. During this time, Audrey staffed the case with her immediate supervisor and the Circuit Court Judge about possible options. It was decided a warrant would be issued. However, in speaking with the Dunklin County Sheriff’s Department, they informed Audrey they would not be booking her client into the jail due to the pandemic. After learning her client would not be detained she responded to his residence following his doctor’s appointment.

Audrey immediately contacted the crisis hotline to respond and conduct an evaluation of her client. The crisis team responded and they agreed the client needed hospitalization. However, the client was unwilling to seek treatment. Audrey noted his behavior was fidgety and he was not making any sense when he spoke. The crisis team contacted Judge Preyer for a commit order. Audrey remained on scene with her client until the order was issued and officers arrived on scene at about 5pm.

Even during the pandemic with limited resources available, Audrey used the skills acquired from CIT training, formed a team including Family Counseling Center, the Circuit Court Judge, the Associate Circuit Judge, local EMS, Dunklin County Sheriff's Department, and the Kennett Police Department, to hold her client accountable for his actions, but most importantly providing the utmost care and concern for his safety and wellbeing of himself and others. Audrey truly lives by our motto, "Improving Lives for Safer Communities."

District 7B PPO Melissa Fleming shared the following Client Success Story:

In 2019, the St. Louis City Treatment Court implemented its first gender specific docket, caseload, and treatment classes. I have been part of the implementation since day one. There is now a gender specific recovery meeting that is held in the Carnahan Courthouse every Wednesday from 12pm-1pm. The women on the caseload as well as myself have purchased items and they handed them out to the homeless in downtown St. Louis multiple times. There have been “bonding” events held for the women that were facilitated by old and new participants who wanted to share their story.

One of the participants that facilitated her story during a “bonding” event was a former client, S.B. She graduated in May 2019 and was discharged from probation. S.B completed the program in 15 months, with no positive urinalyses. She reported her clean date of November 8, 2017. She previously absconded from probation, for a Robbery 1^st, before entering Treatment Court. S.B. then gained another charge and was arrested at which time she was accepted into the St. Louis City Treatment Court Program. She stated it took her three different sponsors until she found the “right” one. The things that she stated helped her the most from the program included taking suggestions from her PPO, treatment counselor, and Commissioner, attending "Let’s Start" to build a support system, and creating a dependable network of individuals in recovery. She stated that the idea of God, structure, and steps were scary at the beginning. The thing she struggled with was changing her people and realizing a relationship was not a good idea and to focus on herself. The things S.B is currently doing right now since graduating treatment court is attending four meetings a week, facilitating the gender specific recovery meeting at the Carnahan Courthouse, and speaking with her sponsor. She moved into her own apartment, and was promoted to Executive Director for Missouri Better Living LLC on May 5, 2020. S.B. stated she loves helping people and that helps her “stay clean” and addiction saved her life.

Great success story Melissa! Thanks for sharing!

The Case Planning Manual has been finalized and DOCOTA training began on June 1, 2020. After completing the training, staff follow-up with attendance at a Q/A Web Ex or by Zoom.

Quality Case Planning is a critical step in establishing a plan of change from the moment an individual is in the care of the Department of Corrections. A quality case plan is an assessment driven, detailed plan that follows the offender throughout supervision, both in DAI and P&P. The case plan is developed with offender input and participation. The case plan targets desired behavioral changes.The manual has been developed to provide staff a tool to assist in the development of quality case plans. 

In June 2020, Assistant Division Director Todd Schwent held Zoom calls with supervisors and officers regarding upcoming changes to Policy and Procedure as it relates to the supervision of clients and violation interviews. Todd commented: "The policy changes are significant enough that it is was important that we provide some additional insight to the changes rather than just sending out the revised policies and bulletins. This will also provide some assistance to DAs in covering the policy changes for staff. This will add an additional layer of support for questions that may arise."

District 25 PPO Cheryl Hicks shared the following Improving Community Treatment Success-ICTS (formally called JRI-TP) story:

A District 25 female client had stopped answering her phone and stopped attending her appointments. She had history of non-compliance as it was her second go around in the Justice Reinvestment Treatment Pilot Program so it was easy to assume she just didn’t want to participate in the program. I thought I would just write a Violation Report and move on to next client, but then I decided to call her family members and see what the root of the problem was. I found out the client was hiding an emotionally abusive relationship with her live in boyfriend. He made it difficult for her to use the phone or go anywhere. I decided, with assistance from another PPO, decided to get her away from her home and take her to SEMO, and meet outside practicing social distancing with the counselors, peer support, and us as a team to find out what was really going on. The client opened up to us about the abuse but was not ready to leave the relationship. We gave her a safe word to use if she was in trouble and our plan was to find options for her and to provide extra support. When we took her back to her house, she was given a directive to report a few days later so I could go over her case plan. She did not report and was not responding to any calls. I did two home visits that day and both times no answer. I decided to do another home visit with the Poplar Bluff Police Department and she finally answered the door. Her face looked terrible. She said it was a cellulitis and she was very sick, and with all the fighting with her boyfriend she was depressed.

The next day SEMO set a doctor’s appointment for her. She is now attending her appointments and has been prescribed needed mental health meds and antibiotics for her condition. She updated me with a photo to show how her face is healing. She is now in daily contact with me and SEMO treatment staff, and does not miss any calls. Long story but point is that clients in ICTS are facing many obstacles, some we can see but a lot of them we don’t see. This was a success for me with this client because she now has gained trust in the ICTS team and is attending treatment. I think having the law enforcement presence at her house has made the boyfriend back off. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a start of steering this client in the direction with the help that she needs. I just wanted to share. It has not been easy with COVID to get all the services with SEMO but the team is making it work!

District 32 PPO Sarah Lee was chosen as the North Central Region Employee of the Month for December 2019. Sarah was nominated by Unit Supervisor Misty Anderson. Misty wrote, "Sarah can be described as both dedicated and hard working. She currently supervises the Lafayette and Ray County Sex Offender caseloads. In addition to these caseloads she recently volunteered to be the SAR writer for those counties to assist fellow officers. Sarah is very proficient with both of these specialized caseloads. Sarah also is an adjunct trainer. In addition to supervising her specialized caseloads, Sarah teaches Mental Health First-Aid, Staff Suicide Prevention, new staff training, and recently volunteered to present the MOMM to staff. Her knowledge in these areas has become a valuable asset to her fellow staff and supervisors at District 32. Sarah also recently volunteered to become a Job Coach, and is doing an excellent job mentoring. Sarah also began purchasing birthday cards and distributes them to staff each month who are having birthdays. Sarah began doing this of her own accord, and the thoughtful gesture helps to boost office morale. Sarah is willing to help out when needed. For example, she has volunteered to help with a weekend drug court UA collection day and helped with the Ray County MODOT community service trash pick-up project. Sarah should be recognized for her professionalism, hard work, dedication, and willingness to go above and beyond. She is a team player and her efforts are very much appreciated at District 32." Sarah is pictured with Regional Administrator Ed Bestgen.

Congratulations Sarah!

In January 2020, District 22 coordinated the agency’s first ever paid internship program. These interns provided program facilitation in districts across the region, including three CSC’s. These three temporary employees completed their work in May 2020. While a new program always has its own set of challenges, throwing a pandemic on top of it really threw them a curveball. With some brainstorming and creativity, the interns were able to continue providing programming to the CSC’s via Zoom video conferencing weekly. A total of 215 clients attended these programs. For community-based clients, the interns were able to provide phone-based facilitation through individual phone calls weekly to 37 clients. One intern provided this final thought of the program, "I am ecstatic to see how this program will continue to help many, many clients and how students interested in the field will grow." This program collaboration with Southeast Missouri State University has been approved to continue through the next academic year.

How do I document while scoring in ORAS Automation?

There are designated areas in each assessment where relevant assessment information should be documented. This information is outlined for you in the ORAS Automation Manual located in the K: Drive; CASE MANAGEMENT; ORAS Automation folder. Please refer to this manual for further guidance on the following topics:   

When do I Override?: Low Risk Parolee in the first year of release.  Make sure to document the reason PAROLEE.

What is Assessment Outcome: This is where we attach the “supervision enhancements” such as Sex Offender, Domestic Violence, etc.

What goes in the Overall Impression: This is where we document responsivity issues/barriers, identified strengths, the Driver (once identified), MVE Experience and Veteran’s Status. These are the only things that should be included in this section unless a report is being prepared for the Board by IPO staff.

What goes in the Notes:  These are the sections at the end of each domain when scoring. Staff are to simply list where the information for scoring this section was obtained (Interview, CBRS, OPII, etc). In addition, if there was a discrepancy that impacted the way the section was scored, that should be included (ie. Pre Hearing 8/1/2000 unable to verify education; Diploma copy in file 5/1/2020).