News and Updates
February 11, 2009
To my colleagues in the NAPSA Northeast Region:
I'd like to introduce myself as your new NE Regional Director. I was just recently appointed to the Board of Directors to fulfill Jan Egner's term. I know many of you but am hoping that I will get to work with each of you in the future.
To give you a little about my own background, I have been the Executive Director of Pre-Trial Services Corporation since 2001 but have worked at the agency since 1985. PTSC is a non-profit agency which began a ROR program for Monroe County (Rochester), NY jail detainees in 1970. Over the years, the agency has continued to evolve and now provides graduated release options up to and including Day Reporting and electronic monitoring. The agency also operates a pretrial diversion program which provides alternatives to prosecution for a variety of populations.
I served on the NAPSA Board in the late 1990's and have been actively involved with the NAPSA Diversion Committee for many years. In addition, I served on the most recent Pretrial Release Standards revision committee and the 1995 Diversion Standards revision committee. In 2008, I was the principal author for the 2008 Diversion Standards revision. Finally, I worked with NAPSA and the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) to develop and implement the curriculum for the Pretrial Executives Professional Development program. I am a faculty member for that program.
A number of years ago in Chicago, NAPSA and NIC convened a strategic planning process which a number of us attended. At that time, we developed a "road map" for NAPSA's future. Many of those plans have come to fruition through the hard work and determination of the NAPSA Board. Individual pretrial professional certification is one of those accomplishments. The development of training and educational programs for pretrial folks is another. The final piece is a national program accreditation process. I think that accreditation is the next step in the development of our field and I have already volunteered to be part of creating the process. I hope that you will join me in working toward this lofty goal through sharing your organizational and state wide standards.
The life blood of any strong organization is its members. The NAPSA News is an excellent means to showcase the variety of programs we have in the Northeast and to highlight the good work you do. I will be reaching out to you to write about your programs and the challenges you face. Many programs are going through tough times now but still providing high quality services. How do you continue to do that? Would you be willing to share your experiences and lessons learned? I know that the general membership could greatly benefit from your insights. If you have something that you can easily send me right now - we do have a March 1st deadline for submission and I would be very grateful! Just email the article to me at the address below.
Feel free to email or call me at any time with questions or if I can help you in any way. We are fortunate in the Northeast to have so many active and involved programs - let's share that expertise!