PROGRAMS
Home Detention
Our Home Detention Program uses meaningful evidence-based and risk-informed supervision to effectively serve moderate to low risk offenders convicted of Level 2 through Level 6 Felonies and at any one time serves up to 100 clients. Clients are monitored utilizing Electronic Monitoring GPS equipment that provides 24/7 monitoring and tracking. Community Corrections employees review all clients movements to ensure victim and public safety. As required by state statue all sex and violent offenders are monitored through this system utilizing alerts and zones designed to provide extra protection to victims. While on home detention, clients remain inside their residence and are only released to go to their place of employment and for other activities approved by community corrections staff with the opportunity to earn positive reinforcement passes to visit with family, participate in special activities, such as a treatment programs or a child’s activity, banking and doctor appointments. Clients are directly supervised by a support team consisting of their case manager, on-site therapist and the director, supplemented by field officers and support staff. Clients receive differing intensities of field and case management contacts, treatment dosage hours, as well as varied frequency of drug/alcohol screening, all derived from their risk level and a case plan is created that is targeted to their individual needs and utilizes evidenced-based programming, peer support groups, employment and other community-based services.
Work Release
Our Work Release program also uses evidence-based practices to more intensively supervise moderate to high risk offenders convicted of Level 6 through Level 2 Felonies. The Cass/Pulaski Community Corrections Work Release Program is a standalone facility that is adjacent to the Community Corrections Main Office and houses up to forty males and twelve females. The population consists of clients who are directly sentenced from local courts and clients who are reentering via the Indiana Department of Corrections through their community transition and work release programs. While in the work release program, the client will remain incarcerated and only be released to go to their place of employment and for other activities approved by community corrections staff. To be accepted into the program, the department will meet with the client and conduct a risk/needs assessment. If said assessment deems the client is eligible for the program the client will go through the intake process. Like our home detention clients, work release residents are supervised using a case plan that is derived from their risk level and targeted to their individual needs that utilizes our a catalog of evidenced-based programming, life skills programming, peer support groups, employment, and community-based services. Click here for a tour of the facility.
Community Transition
Our Community Transition Program, commonly known as CPT, serves male and female adult offenders who are being released from the Indiana Department of Corrections through the Community Transition Program, I.C. 11-8-1-5. The Community Transition Statue allows counties to develop a program that assists offenders being released from the IDOC while utilizing supervision and programming that assures community safety and promotes client rehabilitation. CPCC approves 90% of clients eligible for the program. Most clients are initially transferred from the IDOC and placed into the department’s Work Release Program. Clients are assigned a case plan with a goal of further transition to Electronic Monitoring Home Detention before their scheduled release.
Treatment & Programming
All clients admitted into one of our community correction programs submit to a risk/needs assessment (IRAS) that is used to create collaborative case plan that includes targeted programming that corresponds with each client’s identified needs. The Indiana Risk Assessment (IRAS) is a tool that has been adopted by the Indiana Judicial Center to help identify a client’s level of risk and address areas of needed development. The IRAS instrument uses the following seven (7) domains of assessment: Criminal History, Education, Employment, and Financial Situation, Family and Social Support, Neighborhood Problems, Substance Abuse, Peer Association & Criminal Attitudes and Behavioral Patterns. In order to best attend to client needs, Cass/Pulaski Community Corrections possesses a catalog of appropriate therapeutic programming. Most programs offered are evidence based and/or peer support. Programs are facilitated by either the department or the Four County Counseling Center. You can learn more about the programming and treatment offered below.
ACCI Corrections LifeSkills Link
Cass County Court & Pretrial Services, using funds awarded by the IOCS JPAR SIM Grant, along with Juvenile Probation and Cass/Pulaski Community Corrections began using the ACCI Corrections eCourses CBT LifeSkills Curriculum & LifeSkills Link Learning Platform in September of 2022. By using the self-directed inhouse model, offering the program at no cost to clients will remain sustainable beyond the grant cycle. ACCI is a validated, EBP & CBT program that includes over 15 interactive courses, averaging 10-15 hours long, including Substance Abuse, DUI, Domestic Violence and Cognitive Awareness. “Lifeskills Link is a system of collaboration and accountability. It provides intelligent insights into each students experience which informs targeted intervention and cognitive-behavioral skill development. The curriculum is built on our evidence-based model of cognitive behavior therapy together with our unique self- directed learning approach which has proven to help students and clients overcome self-defeating thoughts and behaviors.”
Interactive Change Journals
Cass County Court & Pretrial Services, using funds awarded by the IOCS JPAR SIM Grant, along with Cass/ Pulaski Community Corrections, began using the Change Companies’ Interactive Change Journals as a way to expand cognitive restructuring interventions and implementation of core correctional practice. Interactive Journaling® is an evidence-based practice for motivating and guiding individuals toward positive life change. This goal-directed, client-centered model helps participants modify their behavior as they progress through the stages of change (Prochaska & Prochaska, 2016).The focus of Interactive Journaling® is the participant Journal, which includes nonconfrontational questions intended to help participants think and then write about their behaviors. Questions guide participants in considering their motivations for change, exploring their options and developing a plan with target behavior-related goals and a timeline for achieving these goals.
Cognitive Skill Building
Cass County Court & Pretrial Services, using funds awarded by the IOCS JPAR SIM Grant, along Cass/Pulaski Community Corrections began training staff on core correctional practices and implementing cognitive skill building interventions into routine supervision practices. Both programs' goals are to use skill-building to continue to shift supervision strategies from compliance-oriented to a focus on promoting and supporting behavior change utilizing a coaching model. Cognitive Interventions are “structured teaching opportunities to help clients recognize situations that may put them at high-risk for engaging in antisocial or undesirable behavior and develop skills to avoid and manage those situations in a prosocial way. (ICJIA).” Utilizing Change Sheets from the Change Companies and BITS (Brief Intervention Tools) from the Carey Group, both agencies have a wide range of tools that including: Cost-Benefit Analysis, Thinking Reports, Behavior Checks, Decision Making, Overcoming Automatic Responses, Problem Solving, Thinking Traps, Overcoming Thinking Traps, Who I Spend Time With, Values Check, Decisional Balance Exercises and more.
Men & Women’s Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Facilitated in house by Psychotherapy Associates of Kokomo is our newest programming offering, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). DBT has been proven effective as treatment for a range of other mental health problems, and can greatly improve your ability to handle distress without losing control and acting destructively. However, to make use of these techniques, you need to build skills in four key areas: distress tolerance, mindfulness, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness
Men's Exploring Trauma+
Facilitated in house by Psychotherapy Associates of Kokomo is our newest programming offering, Exploring Trauma+. Exploring Trauma is a gender-responsive program addressing the trauma experiences of men. Each session contains multiple activities that may include discussions, role-plays, interactive projects and grounding/self-soothing exercises. Some sessions utilize guided imagery, or visualization the goal being to allow men the opportunity to imagine scenarios that are different from their own realities and offers them an opportunity to safely envision different behaviors.
